Page 8 of See You at the Sunset

Her mom dropped her shoulders, the air of exasperation and disappointment coming through the phone screen. Jia wasn’t sure what she dreaded most: telling her mom the news or running out of the gelato she’d been comfort-eating all morning.

“It wasn’t my fault, Mom,” Jia tried to explain. But she didn’t have the words. As she replayed the meeting in her head, she was certain that there had been a mistake. But it was all too overwhelming to process.

“Jia, companies don’t just fire employees without cause, even if they can.” Her mom was coming in with the combination parent-talk and lawyer-speak. Great.

Both Jia’s mom and dad were lawyers. Not just any lawyers, but Harvard Law lawyers. Elected-officials lawyers. Our-reputation-is-everything lawyers.

And Jia? She was their free-spirited, can’t-hold-a-job, doesn’t-know-what-she-wants-to-do-with-her-life, just-looking-for-a-good-time daughter.

She didn’t have the energy to get into it with Mom right now. She needed time to think. And she needed to come up with a plan before...

“I think it’s time for you to move home.”

Too late, there it was. The words that were always waiting anytime Jia screwed up. A safety net that might seem comforting to some but to Jia felt like a cage.

Jia was tired of being rescued. And their help and support always came with expectations and requirements.

No, she didn’t want her parents’ money or their demands. She wanted to show them she was able to take care of herself, while living life the way she wanted to, doing what made her happy.

She just wasn’t sure what that was yet.

Jia was, as her parents put it, a miracle. They’d struggled with getting pregnant, and after multiple miscarriages, they’d finally conceived via IVF. Her mother described her pregnancy asthe hardest time of her life, and it didn’t help that after Jia was born she’d had early health issues.

Her parents raised her with the kid gloves of two people desperate to have a child and the iron fist of Korean expectations... an odd and confusing combination. They wanted her to succeed, but they wanted her to do it their way.

But Jia was twenty-seven now. She was healthy now. She was out on her own now. And they had to let her live her life now. If only Jia could convince them of that by, you know,notgetting fired from her job.

“Florida isn’t my home, Mom. It never was.” This was the truth. Jia had grown up in New York. Her parents only movedto Florida a few years ago. But they tried to make her believe it was heaven on earth. She wasn’t buying it.

“Jia, do you understand the gravity of your situation? You don’t have a job. No income. No health insurance, for god’s sake. Your credit is a mess.”

“How do you even know my credit score, Mom? Do you know how intrusive that is?”

“I wouldn’t have to meddle in your affairs if I could trust you to handle them. How do you expect to afford to keep living in New York? You simply are not capable of taking care of yourself there on your own. It’s like you’re on a merry-go-round, making the same mistakes over and over. But what you do now in your life impacts what you’re able to do later. At this rate, you won’t be able to get bigger jobs. And you can forget ever being able to purchase a house for yourself. Come to Florida, work for me and Dad, build the skills you need to succeed, then get back on your feet.”

Her mother loved a plan. Especially when it involved controlling Jia.

Everything sounded so reasonable.

It all sounded so stifling.

Maybe bigger jobs and buying a house weren’t what Jia wanted for herself. Maybe it never would be.

But Jia was just as tired of letting them down as they probably were. Surely, at some point, she would prove to her folks that she could figure out her own life on her own terms and that would be enough to make them proud.

Right?

“I’ll get a new job,” she said with more confidence than she was feeling. With every failed job, her résumé made her look more and more unhirable. She wasn’t sure she’d have manymore opportunities. If only she could find a job she loved doing, something that satisfied her.

And wasn’t that the dream?

“Jia, the reality is, as a woman, and an Asian woman at that, you don’t have the luxury to make mistakes. You have to work twice as hard with half the amount of support and acknowledgment others receive. That also means you’re not afforded time to figure things out.”

Jia closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh. She knew her mother was right, but it just didn’t seem fair. Was Jia supposed to be on this hamster wheel for the rest of her life?

“Mom...” She didn’t know what she wanted to say.

“I’m going to have to put my foot down. You’re being irresponsible, and it won’t be tolerated. If you don’t find a new job, one that will pay all your bills and afford you to stay in New York, then I’ll have to insist you come and live with me and your father,” her mom said with her lawyer voice activated. “I won’t allow you to permanently damage your future by making bad choices.”