Well it’s
certainly been an interesting ride, but I am sorry to say that my time with my conversation
partner has come to a close. For our
final conversation, we talked about our plans for the future. She is entertaining some offers that universities
have made to her to come do research in Houston or Virginia, so she will likely
move out of the area at the end of the spring semester. I asked her if she is going to miss her
family if she moves so far away, especially since a large part of the reason
that she moved to America was to be closer to them. She said that she would of course miss them,
but that she actually moved away from her parents when she was fifteen years
old, so it wasn’t a huge deal at this point.
Woah, woah, woah. Back this up a little bit. This was some brand new information that was
being divulged. I wasn’t sure if there
may have been some sort of touchy backstory involved so I didn’t want to pry too
much, but it turns out that the situation was not at all what I was expecting.
She grew up in a small town in
Mexico where the quality of life was not quite ideal. At the ripe old age of fifteen, she knew that
she had to move to a bigger town to attend a better school if she ultimately
wanted to end up at a good college. Even
in her youth, she understood the importance of a quality education. With her parents’ blessing, she packed up her
bags and moved to the nearest big city, Monterrey, where she remained for the rest
of high school.
Just to put this into perspective
for you, when I was fifteen, my biggest concern about school was trying to
avoid anything in the lunch line that I couldn’t identify. I was certainly not entertaining the notion
of moving to another city so that I could attend a more prestigious high
school.
The mere thought of moving even
off-campus next year scares the heck out of me, and I’m a nineteen year
old. I can’t imagine being okay with moving
to a completely new city where I didn’t know anyone in freshmen year of high
school. I’m sure it was a great character-building
experience, but it’s one that I surely would not have chosen for myself. I’m surprised that her parents even allowed
it, to be honest, but maybe I am just speaking from the perspective of someone
with an extremely overprotective mom and dad.
If I had brought that idea to my parents at her age, they would have
laughed in my face.
It also shows and extraordinary level
of maturity on her part. Even at that
tender age, she understood how the world works and what it takes to get ahead
in life. Clearly, her plan plaid off in spades,
as she is now a successful physician. I
can’t really help but applaud her resiliency and determination. This chick is going places.
And as for me, I’ll be here, trying
to make it through finals week with whatever shred of sanity I may have
left. While she is planning ahead for a
brighter future, I will be avoiding the entire concept of “growing up” and
pretending that all of those big looming life decisions just aren’t there. The mere thought of having to move away to a
new city after college where I don’t know anybody puts me into the fetal
position. Yes, it will be exciting. But it will also be terrifying. And it is just something that I prefer not to
think about for the time being. If I don’t
pay attention to it, it will just go away, right?
As for what the future holds for me,
let me get back to you in two and a half years.
My conversational partner Sari has a similar story. He is a bit older, but he is basically here in America all by himself. He has a sister here as well, but that is about it. His father passed away when he was young, and communication with his mother is very difficult. While I don't get to see my parents as often as I would like, I rarely go longer than a month or two without them. I can't imagine years away from family.
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