- And that's...
Oh God, I didn't think I was going to cry.
- Both of them left their families
and knew no one and came to this foreign country.
- My mom moved to America
and didn't get to see her family or her siblings
for almost 20 or 30 years.
Didn't get to see her mom's funeral.
Didn't get to see her siblings grow up
with their families because she was living in America.
- My mom used to come to my elementary school
every year with traditional dress and a Quran
and a prayer rug to like teach the kids about Ede.
One year after she came, a lot of kids made fun
of sort of the way she dressed
and what she was doing and what she was talking about
and I was really angry at her
and I told her, like never to come back again
because I was really, really embarrassed
and she listened, but I think she was really hurt.
- I remember when I went to India in 2008 with my mom
for a wedding, she said that was the first time
she had ever visited the Taj Mahal
even though she grew up in India and the reason was
that she just spent her life working for us.
- My dad, before he died,
he was looking for all these jobs
of things that he didn't love to do
and he loved playing music,
but he knew that he had to make a little more money .
- They took odd jobs.
My dad worked at a restaurant, he cut grass.
I remember stories that they used to look for aluminum cans
to recycle from the neighborhood.
- When I was in kindergarten,
I remember that my mom she sat me down
and asked me would you like it if I stayed home more
so I could hang out with you
and I said yes and so she gave up her career
as a computer engineer
to become a full time mom.
- My mom was encouraged to be a stay at home mom
in her older years.
She felt really isolated because it contributed
to her not being able to learn English
and make friends outside of the family circle.
- I used to cry every time that my mom
would drop me off.
There's like a video of me at daycare
and I was like three years old and I ran after her
and they had to go get me
and my mom would cry too
cause she didn't want to leave me,
but she had to work.
- Even to this day,
my parents are still struggling like financially.
When I got into college I got into UCLA and USC.
UCLA being a public school,
which was a lot cheaper than USC, a private school,
and my dad just said go wherever you want
and we'll figure it out.
My parents had to take out a lot of loans and stuff.
I didn't get any scholarships or anything.
We're still paying those off right now.
Yeah.
- Oh man, okay.
- Hi mom and dad.
- Mom, dad.
- Mom.
- Thank you for all the little things that you did
that I didn't know about.
- Especially as a singe mom
raising us all by herself.
- And even to this day working six days a week still.
- I know I don't always say it,
but I really appreciate
everything you've done for me.
- I'm sorry for the way I acted as a kid
because I'm not ashamed of you.
I'm really proud of you
and I'm really proud
of who you are
and I'm really sorry that I used to pretend
that I was white.
(sobbing) I'm really sorry that I used to pretend
that I wasn't Muslim and...
- Thank you for everything.
You did more than I ever deserved.
Sorry.
- I love you.
- Thanks mom.
- Thank you.
- All of the sacrifices they made,
by the time I came along and like was aware of it,
it's almost like they had already done all the ground work
so that I thought my life was easy.