Hero Entry 5 - The Lady with the Forgotten Name

[Ken Li]

(I know the title of this post is a bit cryptic, but I promise, I will explain it!) During my senior year of my undergrad at UW, I had to find a place to do an internship. I found a place called the "Unemployment Law Project", which is located at Downtown Seattle. It was a non-profit law firm that would take cases where a person thought their unemployment benefits were wrongfully taken away from them.

I met and talked with a lot of people there, but one of them stood out to me the most. I honestly wish I could remember her name, but a lot of time has passed since my undergrad (then again, I couldn't give out it anyways, due to confidential reasons). She was a middle aged lady, who was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to use up all her sick leave and time off to make it to all her doctor appointments and she was just feeling terrible. She got to the point where she had to leave her job to take care of herself, and her employer promised her that she would have a job when she got back. Fast forward a few months, and to her surprise, her employer had fired her. So, now she was sick and did not have a job when she got better, and to add insult to injury, her employer were not going to pay for her unemployment.

When I talked with her, she didn't sound resentful or angry. Of all the people I had talked to, she was the most upbeat and charismatic person I had to talk while I was there. She was dealt a terrible hand and she was able to joke about herself and we had a very nice conversation. I asked her upfront how she able still stay so upbeat, even though all these terrible things were happening to her, and she just told me that even though she was upset on the inside, she tried her best to stay upbeat, since this was just a small bump in her life. The conversation with her, just blew my mind away, since I'm 99.9% sure I wouldn't be able retain my composure like she could, if I was in her shoes. This lady, who I barely knew, taught me how to not let all the little things in my life get to me and try to get through life upbeat and with a smile on my face.

So, in the end, we took her case, and I wasn't able to stay at the firm long enough to see the outcome of her case, but I truly hoped the firm was able to win her benefits for her. Cheers to the lady whose name I really wish I could remember, but I can't. Thank you for being the most memorable moment of my senior year at UW!