You're the inspiration

I had dinner this weekend with my friend from Mexico. He has lived here over ten years and has worked in restaurant kitchens all over the city; usually clocking around 80 hours of work a week. Most of his wages are sent home to care for his two children that he has not been able to see since he came to this country. Every time I hang out with him, I can't help but feel grateful for all of the things that I take for granted. He never feels sorry for himself, his view is that he is doing his duty for his family and he is happy to have money to send to his kids so that they can go to school. I just wanted to write this post as a tribute to him as an inspiration in my life.

His attitude of finding the positive in every situation was never better illustrated for me than one day at my old job when the front of house workers were all complaining about how we weren't being paid on time. He told me, "I worked at a restaurant before and I went to work and it was closed and I never got paid $1500 that they owed me." I thought that was ridiculous, "Are you kidding me?" I exclaimed. His response I will never forget, "Yea, but I got to work with a really great chef and learn a lot. So basically it was like I paid $1500 for school which is pretty cheap."