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American Dream No More: What the Drama Series Maid Teaches Us
Unfortunately, right now, people who are born poor are almost destinated to be that way
One of the most popular TV drama series on Netflix right now is Maid, which is inspired by a memoir of the same name by Stephanie Land. It depicts a young single mother with a 3-year-old daughter escaping her abusive boyfriend and trying to barely make ends meet by being a maid. Though the series doesn’t exactly stay true to what she really experienced, it does reveal the struggles of people in poverty.
And some of the scenes are too real for me.
Before I was so lucky to land a full-time job, for more than a decade my wife and I had raised three little kids while being way under the poverty line. We came to America for our higher education dream, but the plan got sidetracked when a professor kicked me out of the funding. She had a reputation for abusing power. I was forced to detour and pursue a much harder goal, Ph.D.
We borrowed $6,000 from my wife’s generous friend just to pay for my last semester’s tuition. And luckily, because two of my three kids were born in America, we were eligible for some benefit and aid programs.
