Tutoring. A job of contrasting forces. The dread I have the couple of minutes before it starts. Yet the pay is great! The minutes that seems like hours when my tutee just doesn't get what I'm saying. But the pay is great! The constant discussions I have with parents about their children, quelching their concerns and listening to their woes. All in all, the pay is great! You get the idea.

I have been tutoring since I was in the sixth grade. My first tutee was a girl in kindergarten. Her name was Yoo-Ri, which means "glass" in Korean. All throughout high school I had a number of tutoring jobs. Our family had a lot of financial problems. Since I was precious only daughter, middle child, and not really into details, I had no clear idea about what was going on in my family. Something about bankrupcy. Business not going to well. It's all really hazy. But, I did grow up with a sense that we weren't doing well financially, and it fostered a spirit of independence within me. I never wanted to ask my mom for money. I never wanted to seem like I want so many things. Like clothes, Barbies, Cabbage Patch Kids, stylish shoes, pierced ears, a pet with four limbs, and so on. I either had to deny that I wanted them or drop vague hints around my birthday or Christmas, so that it doesn't seem like I REALLY wanted these things. Anyways, in high school, I made enough money for allowance. This made me feel really independent and responsible, and I could finally just buy what I wanted. But the years of denial affected my shopping habits, and to this day I have problems buying what I want or knowing what I want to buy. (I'll go into this dilemma some other time.)

My tutees: Yoo-Ri, Janet, Jason, Daniel, Austin, Stacey, a guy from Whitney, girl from Gunn High School, Chimi, Colin, Parisa, and a couple more names I can't remember! I wonder where everyone is now. I wonder if they know how to read, how to conjugate Spanish verbs, how to utilize the pythagorean theorem, and how to read for meaning. Each tutee was special. I realized from my tutoring experiences that I really have a heart for female immigrant children learning English as a second language. They are the ones that need a tutor the most. They are the ones I can relate to the most. In fact, I was a female immigrant child who learned English as a second language! I am tutoring ME. I'm giving back to other people like me, opening up doors for them that they would not otherwise have known existed if I didn't show them. That's my tutoring story.