All Together

           

The Factory

            There is no doubt that the changes in parents’ work have a profound impact on the family. After president Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, he implemented a series of policies on aquaculture for the country. The policies were more demanding than before, and my father’s farm didn’t meet these requirements. For example, in order to protect the water resources, there should be no river near by the farm. The facilities of my father’s farm needed to be replaced. My father needed a lot of money to fix these problems, so he decided to give up his farm after years of hard work. Instead, he opened a cane chair factory, a business which meet the requirements of new policies. When my parents started running the factory, they worked hard and spent all their time in it. As a result, their heath started to decline. Moreover, my brother and I got used to the company of no parents and learned to live independently. From then on, this factory changed my family, left a deep impact on my family’s lives.

            The most immediate effect was that my parent’s health became much worse than before. My parents were very adventurous, and they wanted to make the best of things, so they worked very hard to run the factory well. Sometimes, they only ate half of the meal and left home to work immediately because of the factory. In addition, they worked overtime, I still remember they didn’t rest for a day or two. Sometimes, that happened a lot. They stayed up late for a long time and drank frequently at social events. All these bad habits led to their poor health, especially this year, my father’s angina is worse, he needs to take medicine to keep himself healthy now. If they had maintained their normal routine and diet at that time, their health would not get worse.

           Apart from my parent’s poor health, when they were busy with their work, my brother and I lost parental companionship. This caused my brother and me to accompanied each other, and to depend on each other. When my brother came across homework he didn’t understand, I would explain it to him more patiently than before. I remember one night during a furious storm, my brother would come to my room to sleep with me because I was scared. Our relationship was getting better and better from then on. Although we live in different countries now, we keep in touch every day and we are always the first person to share our happiness with each other.

            On the other hand, in the absence of my parents, I also learned how to take care of my brother and live independently. As the elder sister, it is my duty to take care of my brother, especially when parents were not around. I have more responsibility to give consideration, I learned to cook for my brother’s favorite food in a month. In order not to be late for school, I learned how to arrange the schedule. I mastered a lot of life skills at that time. My independence developed. During the period of independence, it laid the foundation for my independent life in the United States. If I didn’t learn these life skills, I would not be able to live alone in this new and strange country now.

I know the factory took away too many of my precious things, the lost health will not come back. The lack of parent’s company in childhood cannot be easily made up, but I am still grateful. Because what my family lost made us learn to cherish everything that we have now. As my parents grow older, they pay more and more attention to their health. We also cherish the time of our family reunions. The factory was a turning point in my family’s lives and a steppingstone to my life today.   I believe that under the influence of the changes in my parents’ work, my family and I will go through the difficulties and meet a better life together.