He is an only child. He and his mother moved from the Philippines to Illinois to escape poverty when he was 3 years old. He never met his father or grand parents. His mother was "uneducated" and found a job as a seamstress in a not-very-affluent Chicago suburb. He did well in middle school and was able to get into a Chicago Magnet School for high school.
His mother took a part-time job as a cashier in fast food while he worked at the same place as a janitor to pay for college in the future. In his high school Senior year, he applied to all of the Ivy League colleges. He was accepted into all but two.
He decided to attend MIT in Massachusetts as a Computer Science major, while his mother stayed in Illinois. The plan was to spend a year away from each other and then his mother would move to Massachusetts after she saves enough money to afford a nice apartment.
Unfortunately, in the spring of his freshman year, his mother was caught in the crossfire between two local rival gangs while walking home from work. He spent his Spring Break in Illinois closing his mother's affairs and then burying her. He was truly alone, without a single relative to rely on.
He went on to graduate from MIT, receiving job offers from Microsoft, Google, Motorola, Apple, and other tech companies.
I met him when we both started working for Google a few years ago after college. His competence has made him one of the most sought after Computer Scientists in Silicon Valley and Redmond, and still consistently gets job offers from competing tech companies.
The persistence and determination he and his late mother has displayed in the face of challenges that would have crushed weaker-willed people - like me - has taught me to appreciate how genuinely fortunate I have had it in life.
Also, our wedding is this Summer, 2011.
His mother took a part-time job as a cashier in fast food while he worked at the same place as a janitor to pay for college in the future. In his high school Senior year, he applied to all of the Ivy League colleges. He was accepted into all but two.
He decided to attend MIT in Massachusetts as a Computer Science major, while his mother stayed in Illinois. The plan was to spend a year away from each other and then his mother would move to Massachusetts after she saves enough money to afford a nice apartment.
Unfortunately, in the spring of his freshman year, his mother was caught in the crossfire between two local rival gangs while walking home from work. He spent his Spring Break in Illinois closing his mother's affairs and then burying her. He was truly alone, without a single relative to rely on.
He went on to graduate from MIT, receiving job offers from Microsoft, Google, Motorola, Apple, and other tech companies.
I met him when we both started working for Google a few years ago after college. His competence has made him one of the most sought after Computer Scientists in Silicon Valley and Redmond, and still consistently gets job offers from competing tech companies.
The persistence and determination he and his late mother has displayed in the face of challenges that would have crushed weaker-willed people - like me - has taught me to appreciate how genuinely fortunate I have had it in life.
Also, our wedding is this Summer, 2011.
