Are you ready for a feel-good Friday story to warm your heart, leave nary a dry eye and restore your faith in generations to come? Yes, of course you are.
Meet 24-year-old Amirul Afiq, recent graduate from the prestigious United States Air Force Academy, only the third Malaysian to do so. Incredible enough as it is to graduate from one of the best military institutions in the whole world, he had only one person to thank at the end of it: His mama.
Writing on his Twitter page that he wanted the whole world to know that a great mother helped him achieve such an incredible feat, he wanted to thank her for everything she had done and hopes that he made her proud.
Amirul included several photos posing with his mother and sisters, where the sheer happiness and pride in his accomplishment is as clear as the skies on his graduation day.
Having entered the Academy in 2014, Amirul wrote a short statement on his Twitter page giving some insight into his background. If you weren’t crying already, now is the time to grab the tissues.
Born in Negeri Sembilan, he did not come from a prominent military family, nor was there much money growing up. His parents had three children, Amirul and his two sisters, and they divorced soon after.
Writing that while his father is a good man, he battled drug addiction, making times even more difficult for the family.
A single mother with three kids, and an ex-husband who was in no position to help, Amirul’s mother went to Kuala Lumpur to work, sending money back home every month to her kids, who stayed with their grandfather, who was living on a meager army pension.
In the city, she took jobs as a housekeeper, cleaning hotels, and even at the restaurant chain Secret Recipe to make ends meet, diligently sending her paychecks back home. Amirul says that if there was no food at home, they could always make due with whatever vegetables were growing in the garden, and a bit of soy sauce.
Every day, his grandfather dutifully put out 70sen (US$0.15) for his grandson to take to school for food, if there was anything left over, it would be saved and carried to the next day’s 70sen. His lunch at school was provided, as his family was low-income.
Before he flew in planes, his grandfather would take Amirul and his sisters to school on a little motorbike; Amirul remembers sitting on top of the lights, imagining it was a race to get to class.
It was hard for his mother, he says, as she was working away from home most of the time – she often worried that the children would fall prey to the same addictions as their father.
When he was younger, Amirul’s cousins asked him what grades he would be getting in exams. He recalls being unable to think for himself, so he just said “5 A’s” (straight A’s). They told him to not get his hopes up, that their family was poor, and to “be realistic.”
Turns out that he was being “realistic” – Amirul finished school with straight As.
This week, he graduated at one of the best military academies in the entire world, among “The few. The proud,” as he said in a (we’ll forgive him for seemingly riffing on what we’re pretty sure is actually a Marine Corps slogan.
These are inspiring times, and we can’t wait to see what other great achievements lie in store for Amirul and other incredible, hard-working kids like him.
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