My parents forced me into a major that I hated and did not do well in (low GPA, didn’t like the classes, etc). I know they forced me because they “wanted the best for me” but I didn’t get to major in what I was good at/interested in and my degree is virtually useless due to oversupply. Now thanks to the budget cuts the CSUs aren’t taking any students who want to come back for second degrees. So I don’t even have a second chance until the budget gets fixed (if ever).

Life is too short to waste your life away on a job that you’re miserable in just so your parents can brag about it. It’s ironic that the blue-collar jobs that they scorn are in high demand.

I feel that it’s unfair because I’m exactly what they made me to be.

I’m very thankful to have grown up in a family that never pushed or pressured me into doing something I didn’t want to do. I never had a curfew, and would usually watch TV for hours on end, but every morning, no matter how late I went to bed, I was always on time for school.

When other kids, not just Asian kids, were hiding their lives from their parents, I freely talked about what party I was going to, or that I just had a sip of the nastiest beer on Earth.

Perhaps it was a symptom of not ever being pressured, that I only pressured myself. My senior year of HS, I took 8 classes (0 period, 6 regular, and a 7th), 5 of those were AP courses. I passed 4 (even though I’m Asian, I suck royally in Math and Science, hence didn’t pass Calculus AP, honestly, I didn’t even try. I opened the packet and pretty much slept for 2 hours). I graduated with a 4.28 GPA.

I graduated College in 3 years, with a double major in Film Studies and Art History, any other Asian parent would’ve had a hernia by now. I made Dean’s Honor 6 times, and graduated with a 3.95 GPA.

But 5 years later, and still going strong, I freaking love making movies. My name is attached to big budget Hollywood blockbusters, and some amazing TV spots. I couldn’t be happier, and neither could my family.

Sometimes you just luck out with the family you get. I sure did.

Personally i feel the whole attitude of Asian parents is of exploiting their kids. You will wonder how, when they pay for them well into their 20′s. but to get what they want out of them – that psychological boost , that pride of being able to announce and boast to their relatives and to the whole world that my son/ daughter is studying in Harvard / Princeton. …

i think we kids are no better.. if you look at the average profile on facebook.. everybody who’s in one of the ivy leagues, especially if from an Asian background, makes it a point to boast about it.

What is the need? what is the need to tell the whole world you’re at Harvard…? Or is the point of being there lost if you dont tell it? What is the use of knowing someone has a chemical engineering degree from MIT for someone who is not in that profession or field, for someone not hiring or applying ? it’s just for boasting, for showing off. Nearly everything we envy actually serves no other purpose than being something we can show off – from HOnda civics, to a condo, to a great looking husband or wife, or over achieving kids.

THis mentality of showing off and valuing possessions and pieces of printed paper and names of degrees and the institutions which bestowed them, this method that Asians, and people in general use of assessing a person’s worth is what is fundamentally wrong.

If parents understood or even wondered or were willing ot believe that their child can be a perfectly sharp and bright kid, a capable kid with the potential of success in whatever field he loved and was passionate about, if parents ever honestly BELIEVED that then none of this would happen..

THe whole story is this – parents dont believe their children can make it in something they choose out of their own will, and drive, parents wont trust kids to make that choice, parents dont give their children those tools of SELF BELIEF…. and neither to they even pretend to have any belief otherwise in their kids.. so there begins and ends the tragedy…

on the other hand there are many instances where a parent’s drive and determination to make their kid succeed has worked wonders – Tiger wood’s or Andre Agassi’s or Venus/ Serena Williams’ or Michael Jackson’s Dads for example -… or Michael Phelps’ mom – but here too they DID care to actually find out where their child’s natural talent lay… and not just push them into being a banker or lawyer… so parents can do harm, but also be the driving force behind a boy or girl wonder !!! 1