Family Business

Summer has come and gone and now I'm back in my apartment on Eden Avenue. I'll be here for awhile, and I may rep the 513 for a lifetime, so y'all know where to find me. To all my readers, especially Mr. Nagaraj, I appreciate your loyal following.

My grandparents are getting ready to travel back to India after spending the summer here in Cincy and with my aunt in Dallas. I've always maintained a somewhat distant relationship with my grandparents and my father, but I realize that whatever strengths and talent I may have is because of them. I look to my grandfather and see where I get my dark sense of humor and my firm grip on reality. Any academic success I have had has been mostly because of my father who may not always be very tactful or socially inclined, but is bright and modest.

My father's mother appears frail and it is hard for us to communicate because she does not have a firm grasp on the English language. I have been quick to dismiss her as someone who cannot understand the demands and customs of a fast paced western world. What I may have missed is her strength and perserverence in her role as a wife and grandmother. Admittedly, I do not know her very well, but she has lead a life of routine and discipline. Whether it be the way she prepares meals so meticulously with her unsteady hands, or the consistency of her daily prayer and enduring faith in religion, I suspect that she has a mental tenacity that constrasts from her aged appearance. And although I have little to say, I have learned that she enjoys my silent company because part of her lives in me. Perhaps it is from her that I get my drive and ambition which has made medical school go relatively well thusfar. Whatever may come, I realize that I will be able to rely on my family and my own inner reserves of strength and determination as I hope to become a physician and a civilian who will make a difference.