Did I just say that? This from someone who has 20 years of schooling, which means I’ve spent more of life in school than out of school. Why would I say such a thing?

Because it’s true. I met a professional working mother last week who had not gone to college, and it made me smile. I should have been focusing on what she said, but I found myself thinking about how much I have learned from individuals with little to no formal education.

My daughter is about to start first grade next week, and I am so thankful to be living in a country where education is guaranteed. While the quality of public education isn’t always as I would wish it to be, I don’t feel any less grateful that she has the opportunity. I have loved school for as long as I can remember. Literacy unlocked this new magical world that had no limits. I could go to the moon. Well, at least I could read about people who had gone to the moon or to the ends of the earth as early explorers did. Because of Fitzgerald and Steinbeck, I could immerse myself in the lives of the wealthy or the despair of the downtrodden.

With a formal education, I can be a doctor, a lawyer, a professor, etc…but that doesn’t mean a lot when it comes to living a full life and leaving a legacy for my child and future generations. I must admit that I am highly annoyed when people focus on my education unnecessarily. For example, I have had colleagues and friends introduce me this way: “Hi, this is Nhung. She has a law degree.” What? Who cares? I usually find myself more embarrassed than anything else. Not embarrassed about my education because law school was a wonderful season of life for me, but because I was summed up and defined by my education. I am more than that.

I think about my parents, who had no opportunities to attend school in their native country of Vietnam, and yet, have more knowledge about surviving life and leaving a legacy in their pinky fingernail than I have with my cumulative years of formal education. When people ask me where I learned my work ethic, my intensity, my drive for excellence, I never attribute it to school or internships. I immediately think of my parents. A couple in their early 30’s who chose to make a sacrificial decision to leave their home country so that their children could have the opportunity to receive an education and the life beyond that. I think about the many days and nights I used to watch my father and mother shucking oysters and repairing fishing nets to make sure we had provisions.

Sacrifice. Perseverance. Determination. Intensity. Laser-focus. Goal-oriented. Endurance.

Those are the attributes I learned from my parents. I look at my daughter and wonder how my husband and I are going to pass on that legacy to her. If you were to ask her what she has learned from me, I think she might say a love of books and reading. Nothing wrong with that, but as she gets older, I’d love to hear her say that she’s learned about “living” from me. It’ll require that I put down the books, walk away from the flash cards, and take a break from the computer lessons and expose her to life.

And as I think about how to end today’s post, my daughter Lexi sums it up for me in this way: “Momma, people can be smarter than you even though they never went to school.”

Preach it, girl.