Me and my dad went out for a drive one night. We usually didn't talk much; the radio played loud, just the way we liked it. Besides, boys didn't need to talk much. But he always cared. He asked me about my day.

"It was fine," I said. I took that math test I studied all week for. They served pizza for lunch, best day of the week. Oh, and a janitor gave me a hard time. But it's okay, he was just a janitor.

My dad frowned.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Well," I said, "Kinda. I mean, he's just a janitor."

Something about that bothered my dad.

"You're judging somebody because of his job."

I shrugged.

"Don't do that," he said. "Don't ever do that."

See, to this day I'm not very comfortable in high society. My family is simple, it always has been. Everybody works- mom, dad, grandma, grandpa- and everybody does the best they can.

"There isn't a job in the world that's beneath you," my dad said. "It's just a job."

I thought about that.

Nobody worked harder than my dad, after all. Fifty, sixty, seventy hours a week or more, often in pouring rain or blinding snow or in the dead of night. But he did it for me.

And then I understood.

He still works hard, even to this day. As for me? I write this on a balcony in an apartment in a different city, in a different country, on a different continent- all because my dad worked hard his whole life, and my grandfather before him did the same. 

A week from now I'll be back home, and I'll have to get up and go to work... I can't afford to sit and write all day, after all. I work a dead end job, really, no respect, no title; I'm  paid to be little more than a servant. But that's not who I am, it's what I do.

It's just a job, and I'm lucky to have it.

See, I've learned that nobody is going to hand you anything. Nothing is free, after all. 

Nothing is fair, either. The system is against you, it was from the start.

But the thing is, if you sit and complain then you won't get very far. Trust me, I've tried.

So instead? I get up. I go to work. I read, I study, and I do the best I can with what I have. I'll never be the biggest, or the strongest, or the smartest, or even the nicest or the prettiest... But my family, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, they all taught me that I can be the hardest working.

That's just who I'll have to be.