My mom would always scold me for not sitting straight. Whenever she saw me hunched over at my PC, playing League of Legends or doing my homework, she would speak in Vietnamese, "ngồi thẳng" with a threatening tone. I sometimes listened and I sometimes didn't. It's hard to remember to sit straight as an adult, let alone as a child who was more hyper-focused on his Platinum promotion games.

My mom also forced me to drink 3 cups of milk everyday, despite me being lactose intolerant at the time. I went to school with a lot of stomach aches, and spent an embarrassing amount of time in the school bathrooms. A funny consequence of a good intention. Unfortunately, I stopped growing by grade 8.

My mom always cooked spicy food because to her, spice was flavour. This became the household baseline, and thus, everything we ate was spicy. If it wasn't spicy, it was bland. Everything had chilli peppers or sriracha on it. If you ever eat pho with me, you'll understand what I mean.

My mom would work from 7AM-3PM every weekday at an automotive factory because she wasn't equipped to work a white-collar job. Having immigrated to Canada at the age of 16, her English wasn't the best and after having her first child (my older brother), she defaulted to working whatever job she could to take care of the family. Her jobs varied over the years.

My mom has back problems because of the 20 years that she worked at this automotive factory, standing all day for extended hours on end. She worked hard to put food on the table and keep the roof over our heads. Now she can't stand straight herself.

My mom began to suffer from depression and had thoughts of suicide a few years ago because of how difficult our situation at home had gotten. My mom has always fought. My mom is a warrior.

So now, everything I do is for my mom. I owe her a lot. I feel deeply indebted to her, that I get to live the life that I live today. That I get to experience the things that I get to experience, that I get to learn from the people that I surround myself by, that I have anything at all. I owe all of this to her.

I'm trying to sit straight more often these days.