The Newspaper Article

This framed newspaper article is hanging in my childhood home in Las Vegas. It’s an article from the Korean language LA Times dated January 30, 1996 about me and my older sister after we passed the CA and NY bar examinations and officially became practicing lawyers. My parents sacrificed so much to give us a better life here in the U.S. and having the article up on their wall represented the culmination of their immigration journey. 

At ages 3 and 5, my sister and I traveled alone from Korea to the U.S. to reunite with our parents who had earlier moved to and settled in Las Vegas. Our father had arrived in Las Vegas 2 years earlier. Once he found a job as a waiter at the Stardust Hotel & Casino and secured a one bedroom apartment, he sent for my mother to join him, leaving us to be raised by our family members in Korea. My mother, who had been educated at a top women’s college in Korea, took a job as a maid at the MGM Hotel & Casino. Six months later, they sent for my sister and I to join them. My parents worked long hours while also raising us. My mom even attended evening classes so that she could become a 21 dealer. After graduating high school, my sister and I left Las Vegas and attended colleges on the east coast—staying home was not an option. We then both attended and graduated from law school—my sister from Hastings School of Law in San Francisco and I from NYU School of Law. I still live and work in Manhattan where my husband and I have raised three daughters.

This newspaper article made my family’s immigration story known to the world and validated my parents’ sacrifices and decision to leave Korea and move to an unknown and foreign country. I think it also represents the “American Dream” for my family. The article quotes my Dad. He says, “like many other Korean immigrant families, our life in America has not always been smooth sailing, but I feel a sense of fulfillment in life whenever I see my two daughters growing up so well.” My own three daughters are a constant reminder of everything that my parents have done for me and the future generations to come.