CNN iReport

All that I am is because of my grandmother's sacrifice. My grandmother Andrea Mercado(bottom row last person on the right) would tell me the stories of how she grew up in Yauco, Puerto Rico in the 1920's. Her mother died when she was two from an infected mosquito bite and she was raised by her elderly father. My grandmother would tell me stories of how she carried around a coffee can begging for food in the streets of Yauco.  She arrived in Sacramento, California, after the death of her father. Her sister Maria (bottom row next to my grandmother) brought her to California. This picture was taken when they were working in the fields picking fruit in the 1930's.

My grandmother met my grandfather, John Olson, at a wedding where she worked as a maid. My grandfather was a hardworking man who built their home in Sacramento. As I grew up, I would hear my grandmother tell me the stories of sacrifice to make a better life. My grandfather would talk about the depression, how he had to work so hard and how he could get a bowl of chili and cornbread for 5 cents to sustain him.

Like many grandmothers, my grandmother taught me to save and work hard. She would sit in her modest home and remark "I am rich." She was always grateful for what she had and took care of it. She died in 1990.

Almost twenty years later in 2009, I have an Associates, Bachelors, JD and a Master's Degree because I did not want my grandmother's sacrifice to be wasted. I wanted her struggle to mean something through my achievement. So even in a bad economy, I must be grateful because my life is still easier than what my grandmother endured. My life IS better because of her sacrifice. So America will be all right because America is made up of people like me, people who have survival in their blood passed down from those who came before us.