People In My Life : Jesus

Thursday morning I introduced the topic of "Work" to my low level English as a Second Language students by discussing their jobs. Each person shared what they could about their jobs which was very interesting. When we got to Jesus he shared that he no longer works. He is retired. He moved to the United States from Mexico 42 years ago. For 36 years Jesus worked for the same company as a fork lift driver and then in the shipping department. Jesus shared that when he first started working the job he told his manager he was going to quit because he didn't know enough English to do the job. Luckily for Jesus, his manager had faith in him and sent him to classes that focused on the language necessary for his job. As Jesus spoke, I could see my younger students really focusing in on his story. They knew he had something important to share. He said his dream was to put his children through college. He showed pictures of all four of his children who not only graduated from college, but graduated from private colleges. Two of his children are now investigators, one is a lawyer and one an engineer. Jesus shared that he put in a lot of hours to make his dream come true - a lot of 12 hour/7 days a week to get there. When asked if his family suffered because of his long work weeks, he said they made the time together. Now that Jesus is retired and his dream of his children attending college is behind him, he is now focusing on himself. He said he now has the time to devote to learning English for himself. When he was finished speaking, the class applauded him.