My voyage

Dear Diary,

Seeing as how this is my first entry, it seems fit that I should introduce myself.  I go by the name of Jeu Dip and I am from Skipping Stone Village in the Guangdong Providence.  Today, I work as houseboy for Mr. Matt Sterling in San Francisco.  The story of how I've come to this position is long, and full of both tantalizing and details, but I think that in general something can be said about reflecting upon it - and thus that is the aim of my starting this diary.

The circumstances which led me to even consider the possibility of migrating to another country are wholly complex.  Due to complications with my birth, my mother passed away shortly thereafter.  So I lived with my father for the next ten years - every day of which was a struggle.  For, while he was able to find me enough food and care to scrap by living he treated me in a very poor manner.  I was forced to toil away in the rice paddies, and peanut fields until long after exhaustion had overcome me.  My fathers demands of me as a source of labor where only second in brutality, to his wrathful outburst.  One thing or another always had my father infuriated with me, and he consistently took out this angry through beating me.  While I had always considered my situation a precarious one at best, it was not until I reached the age of eleven that I began to consider the possibility of leaving him.

Around that time, I met a few orphaned boys who were working on plans to immigrate to the United States.  They told stories of a country filled with untellable riches so vast that anyone lucky enough to make their way there would become necessarily unseeingly wealthy within a matter of time.  After interrogating them about their schemes I found the idea to be most attractive, and thus I began plotting my own escape to this land of riches.  It took but a few months for me, and my friends to acquire the necessary resources and connections required to make the voyage across the pacific to California, however we were meet with a the stark realities of life as soon as we set foot on shore.

Rather, than living the dream as a gold miner as we had planned we stuck attempting to find any sort of working to avoid being left entirely destitute.  We soon learned that the gold rush we had thought so fondly of had died down, and despite talks about railroad companies looking for labor there was no overwhelming demand for our labor.  So it was with no lack of sheer joy that I accepted a position as a houseboy with Mr. Matt Sterling.  The work, while far from glamorous is not too awful yet and hopefully it'll serve as a launching pad for a more accomplishment ridden future.

Hopefully, I am able to find the time and desire to continue writing in here - my life is sure to continue to be full of worthy stories.

Until then,

Jeu