Who Me? - Mercedes Lefiti

When it comes to get stuff done I’m the person you want to come to. Depending on whether you tell me it’s urgent or get it done by the end of the day I get it done. Far as far as I can remember I’ve been asked to take on major jobs that I wasn’t supposed to be doing. For example, when I was about nine my parents divorced and I was forced to watch my little brother after school because my dad couldn’t afford a baby sitter. I never talked back to my dad when he asked me to do something. I believe that that’s what made me a mentally stronger person. Mind you that we were living in Antioch at the time and my dad’s work was in San Francisco meaning if I needed him he was hours away. By the time my dad got home from work it was around 10 o’clock at night which was our bedtime. By the time I was ten I learned how to do every single house chore you can think of; from washing dishes to doing laundry. I basically took on my mom’s job when I was ten years old. It soon came to a point where my dad didn’t even have to ask me to do stuff; it became a habit without any backtalk. My dad is Samoan and he’s a pretty cool dude and you just have to learn not to press certain buttons and talking back is one of them. With my dad around I grew up with something called “fa’a Samoa” which means the Samoan way of doing things and me and my brother knew if we ever disappointed my dad he would punish us but later explain to us why he did it. I believe because my dad being the father figure that I should have in my life people can come to me without being hesitant to ask me to do tasks when their workload is heavy. When it comes to both of my parents, whenever they tell someone to do something and they don’t do it I don’t ask “You want me to do that?” or “Who me?” Those two questions are out of the picture. Those two questions don’t exist in my life.