My mom cleaned houses and my dad worked to build a small business. My parents worked themselves to the bone so that my brother and I could just have a shot.
And for a moment there, it looked like we were going to make it: we had a home, bills were a little less stressful to pay, and I was doing well in school. What may have looked like a modest life to others was a dream come true for us.
But suddenly, when I was a teenager, my dad was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. He passed away in September of 2008, just as the economy crashed in the Great Recession and millions of jobs across this country vanished.
It felt like the world of our family fell apart as the larger world was falling apart too.
Overnight, my mom was left to figure out how to provide for two kids by herself, put them through school, keep our house, pay off my dad’s medical bills — all on a house cleaner salary.
That’s how I became a waitress. Because it was millions of innocent working families who paid the price, while the billionaires and thieves who defrauded our financial system got off richer than ever before. And not a single one of them went to jail.
And you know what? That is the story that Republicans mock — not just mine, but all of ours — when they say a waitress or working person is unqualified to serve in Congress. I tell this story not because it is special, but because of how common it is.
While the details may differ, so many of us know what it feels like for life to be one bad day, one bad piece of news, one major setback from everything feeling like it’s going to fall apart.
We don’t have to live like this anymore. We can make a new world, a better country, where we can fight for the dignity of all people.
And it looks like living wages. It looks like stable housing. It looks like guaranteed health care. And it looks like respect for all of our differences, no matter who we are or where we come from.
In solidarity,
Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez
