A Memoir Biography Sample

J came to motherhood in a rather unconventional way. 

It started when she graduated from college with $5 and 1 cent in her bank account and began looking for a job. It was the McCarthy Era when people from non-White ethnicities were viewed suspiciously; J’s Chinese surname wasn’t helpful in this situation. “I was too young and naive and idealistic, thinking it’s a great world out there, but jobs were hard to come by,” she said.

Her mother suggested she check out the military service. So J applied through the direct commission program and became a second lieutenant, one of the many young female graduates hired by the armed forces.

During her year in the military she spent time in Texas, Washington, and Oklahoma for transportation training, which is what she had signed up for. Her class was taught how to load large C130 planes with tanks and equipment, and J excelled in her exams. But come graduation day, she got some bad news. The instructor told all the women that they will not be allowed on the freight line. When J asked why he said there was a civilian union that prohibited women from being on the freight line. J was livid. “There was so much discrimination, it was unbelievable.” She was sent back to Washington and tasked with helping military families move to Alaska, to join posted officers. This was not what she signed up for. She remembers thinking, “Wow this is nothing.”

While in the military she had met and fallen in love with her future husband, who was a liaison officer for the Vietnamese Air Force. They first saw each other in a mess hall. J was looking for a way to get out of service and the easiest way at the time was to get pregnant. “That's how motherhood began for me,” she said.