"Mom, you're getting old, please stop working overtime," I lightly scolded. "Besides, don't you ever get bored?"

She candidly responds in Vietnamese: "How can you be bored when you have a purpose?"

The matter-of-factness took me back. It startles me even now in its simplicity, especially because she truly believes it.

And that's my mother. A 5'2" Vietnamese woman who quips wisdom and whimsy without knowing she does either. Working since she met her sponsor family at age 18, still working every hour she can get her hands on. Hotels, sewing factories, engineering facilities, her GED. Mother's come a long way since she's hit these shores.

"I get tired. But then I remember. The tiredness goes away when you have vision."

As a modest woman she's paid her dues to the open opportunity presented by this country. She doesn't see her working days ending anytime soon and still, she works hard. Because damnit there's just no other option. This is life.

Even as her kids are rounding well past a life's quarter, "I work for the family," she tells me. Talk about realigning perspective.