When I was a child, my mother and I lived alone. She worked in a pharmacy, but the money was never enough because my father did not send us any money. We used what she earned to pay the rent, but there was not much left over.

One day, when I was about 10 years old, I asked my mother if I could help her with another job. I told her that we could sell empanadas with hot chocolate since it is cold in my country. We asked my aunt if she wanted to help us with the work, and she said yes. We began preparing to create the most delicious empanadas and the best hot chocolate in the world. Together with my aunt, we made the dough for the empanadas. We kneaded it until it was as fluffy as a cloud. My mother prepared the hot chocolate, letting the milk boil for about 20 minutes so that it would condense and taste better. After adding cinnamon, cloves, and powdered chocolate, the pot gave off an incredible and very delicious aroma.

The next step was to fill the rolled-out dough with cheese, ham, and egg, then put these in the oven and let them bake for 30 minutes. The empanadas had a golden color. They looked so crunchy, and when they came out, they gave off a fantastic smell, as if we were having breakfast in front of the Eiffel Tower.

When everything was ready, we went out in the afternoon to sell everything. We had a cart to carry it all, and we went house to house offering everyone empanadas and hot chocolate. At the end of the day, we managed to earn 100 dollars, which was a lot for us.

We continued doing the same thing for a month, but then we could no longer continue because my aunt had found a place to work, and my mother no longer had time. I also got busy with school. But I learned so much from this first experience of working. I learned to make an effort and to value the work and the time and the money that I earn. Afterward, sometimes when I saw a toy that I wanted, I thought twice before buying it because I knew that my mother might need that money later. I learned how hard you had to work to earn it.

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Jason Bastidas is originally from Ecuador. He has lived in New York City for about five years. He studies at CUNY’s City Tech in teacher Heidi Fischer’s CLIP class. The site director is Gilberto Gerena. Jason Bastidas hopes to become a software designer someday.