My college roommate for a few years was also Vietnamese, born in a refugee camp. He went on to a top medical school and today is a specialist doctor.

I often think about how I slacked my way through college, and how hard my friend worked. For me, I figured people were hiring programmers without college degrees, and I could always fall back on my middle class parents; for him and the sacrifices his family made, failure was not an option.

It's a real reminder of what privilege means.