The Most Well-Educated Toll Collector
By Eddie Vega
In 7th Grade we had a class called “Career Exploration”
we were encouraged to explore different paths in life
to find what our place might be in the workforce
We took vocational tests, aptitude tests, and vocational aptitude tests
Given results, we were told:
“You can make excellent:
auto mechanics
grocers
retail sales clerks
infantry soldiers
and if you try real hard, boys and girls,
maybe someday,
you can be managers!”
Our field trip was to McDonald’s
they showed us how they make them Big Macs so fast
how they build those boxes to put them in
before we left they made sure
we knew how to punch a time clock
When Ms. Grimley asked what our parents did we hesitated
before saying things like:
“he fixes cars”
“she works at K-Mart”
“he drives a truck”
What Ms. Grimley didn’t know was that our parents
were actually
engineers
accountants
psychiatrists
teachers
They crossed the border with knowledge and experience
but had to leave their degrees and credentials behind
My father was a teacher
he exchanged his white collar for a blue one
to get a green card
The only time I saw him in a classroom
was when he visited as a parent
listening to teachers talk to him
as if he didn’t know about pedagogy
he stood in silence despite having so much to say
My father was the most well-educated toll collector
on the international border
traded desks in rows for cars in columns
his podium turned into a cash register
asked people to pay a dollar instead of attention
Our immigrant parents left opportunities for themselves
to find better ones for their families
they took the jobs Americans didn’t want
so their kids could take whatever jobs
they wanted to
Our immigrant parents started us on a path to their American dream
My father stopped being a teacher so that I could be one