My jobs, being grateful

This is a random post. 

I started giving tuition to support myself when I was in junior college. The year was 1983. I was given 60cents a day but it wasn't enough and I ended up with gastric issues. I was employed by a friend's parent to teach her brother maths, and science twice a week, 2hrs each session. I was paid $100 a month. Of the $100 I earned, $20 went to my mum to support the household, half went to my savings and the remaining was spent on sustaining my daily expenses. For my very very first pay, I bought my mum a gold ring. In the second year, the parents asked me to teach the sister too and increased the pay to $120 a month. 

It was end-1984. My monthly tuition income stopped. I found work as a convenience store assistant, helping out an uncle (my dad's cousin). Apart from manning the store, I helped pack hampers for them during the festive seasons. I earned $120 a month, working every evenings and on weekends. I increased my contributions to my mum for the household to $30 if I recalled correctly. It translated to $1 extra a day for her and wasn’t much, but I supposed it wasn’t the amount that’s important but the gesture and the intent behind it. Then again, I do want to believe it helped.

Jan 1985. I applied for a part time job as a traffic surveyor over a 2-3 month period for the roads department. Found the role published in the newspaper and decided to apply for it as I had some time before I went for my national service. The job required me to site myself at an assigned road junction and literally counting passing cars, turning cars and taking note of the directions cars were going. That was my first job with a professional company and my mum brought me for the interview. If I recalled correctly, I earned about $200 for the assignment that lasted 8(?) weeks. A portion of this pay went to household expenses. 

These were some of the earliest work I did. I would make conscious efforts to help with family expenses and save. I supposed these were values I picked up from my mum, watching how she toiled and how she sacrificed her own well-being for us. 

Be grateful.