With my father being a chef at a small Japanese restaurant my entire life, I was pretty much born into the restaurant industry. I started working at his restaurant when I was 15 and have continued to work at various restaurant establishments since then. The restaurant industry is my home and restaurant workers are my family. 

Despite the horrible treatment and low wages so many of us experience, I have always been in awe at the amount of care, love and innate sense of solidarity restaurant workers have for each other. I am so grateful to be building power with workers every day so that we can reshape the industry for the better. I originally came to ROC-DC as a member and had the privilege to join the organizing team in 2016.