Article by Sophia Ziemer, Staff and assisted by Genevieve Printiss, Staff
Andrew Nguyen has supported himself since the age of 15. He had to work long hours throughout his high school life to pay the bills needed, except for rent. He began his sous chef work during his sophomore year of high school at a fine dining French restaurant but quickly found himself in frustrating situations such as “being skipped out on the pay.”
He had become a sous chef at the fine dining restaurant in his hometown of Apalachicola, and continued to work there until he graduated high school. After his high school graduation, he worked at a pub-style while picking up shifts at the fine dining at the same time.
Paying his own phone bills, food and car insurance while also trying to build up his savings became his top priorities, since his mom could not work.
After high school, he was given the offer of becoming the manager of the fine dining restaurant. However, he had to reject an offer of becoming a manager at the restaurant because he had already decided to move to Tallahassee and attend Tallahassee Community College.
Nguyen had to pay for his first years tuition out-of-pocket. Tuition and rent were a difficult addition to Nguyen’s already significant living expenses, as he could not receive financial aid until his sophomore year at TCC.
“I just got financial aid this semester because I could not get the paperwork to go through,” Nguyen said. “I didn’t have my mom to help me, (or) my dad. I don’t associate with him financially.”
Nguyen said he does not have health insurance because he does not have the funds for it since he pays for everything on his own.
He then goes on to tell why he chose TCC: “TCC was recommended to me by friends who go to FSU. There’s just that peer-to-peer connection. You also have student and teacher connections, which is really good. Everybody goes at a good pace so it’s easy to understand the material that you learn there.”
He has also dealt with issues of stereotyping since he is a Vietnamese-American, feeling he has to ‘live up to them’ and comically says “not all of us eat rice.”
“All Asians get A’s” claims Nguyen. “In class, I’ve noticed that people think that I’m smarter than everyone else, which like, not to be arrogant, that’s the case in some classes because I just had a better understanding of the material. Some of the professors also asked me to be a tutor, and like, offered to pay me but I was like ‘I can’t really do that right now.’”
While working full-time, he had fulfilled his childhood dream; He had finally purchased his own car. With no one else to rely on financially, Nguyen’s Mazda Miata is his greatest achievement.
“I think it’s just a cool toy, essentially, because we grow out of Hot Wheels, so what comes next is an actual car.” says Nyugen.
Many may not feel that their first car is a “life” achievement, but for Andrew Nguyen nothing feels more special than personally owning something and getting there on your own.
“I just generally like my car so much, even though it’s like really crappy. But I still take care of it, because it’s my car; It has my name on it, nobody else’s.”
