I was humbled at a young age because of my parents. I learned to appreciate the small things in life. I did not care what other people thought about me or my family for that matter. As long as everything I did and everyone else around me was happy, I was too.
We decided to move from Queens, NY to a small town that goes by the name Bergenfield in New Jersey. I wasn’t raised with the fanciest of things. Of course we all admired the finer things in life but sometimes, less was better. Something that we did not have a surplus of was space. Living arrangements in our house at the time was not an issue. We did not need the extra rooms or extra storage space or a basement. Thus, we did everything together, as a family. To this day, we are all very close, cooperative, and easy-going. Plus, we make sure we look after each other by doing the little things in life that will make life flow smoothly. Moreover, everything about my hometown was simple too which made all of our lives easygoing. This is all thanks to my parents and their families. They gave us the opportunity to come to this country and live their own dreams. My parents worked hard in school and came to the country from India ready to work even harder.
I was mesmerized by the idea of a house with two floors, bedrooms, a kitchen, two full bathrooms; everything was exciting to me as a kid. I had these shelves on my wall that I loved immediately. I knew I would put my toy cars and lava lamps on there to really make the room shine. Our theme was outer space as kids so the entire room was blue and green and we had those stars that we could stick on the ceiling that glow at night. It was not a bad surprise to me that I was told I was sharing the room with my brother. I was easily excited to have the time of my life just goofing off with him all day long. Of course school and growing up wasn’t on my mind at all, so life was literally all fun and games. This changed one summer afternoon where I was selfish and greedy.
My brother and I were eating Fruit Roll-Ups while watching Full House together in our room. Out of nowhere, I claimed the last Fruit Roll-Up in the box even though we were supposed to have two each, I still wanted to have a third one. We got into a heated argument about the last one and I had no solid argument obviously because I was clearly in the wrong.
“You never share with me!” I falsely claimed.
“You’re the one that takes everything from me and gets away with it every single time because you’re a baby. You always tell on me and have it your way!” He replied.
Although he yelled back at me, it was deserved because I was being unfair and on top of that, I wasn’t sharing things with him beyond the snacks. I realized at that moment the importance of giving back to others and making sure I do not hog anything for my own benefit. The lesson I learned that day was selflessness. To an extent, I take it as far as altruism where I make sure the people in my life are happy at any cost. This lesson I learned is something that I think about everyday with the people that are in my life. I make sure they aren’t deprived of their Fruit Roll-Ups or anything.
I gave back the fruit roll-up but the worst part is that we argued over the entire episode of Full House when Michelle Tanner fell off the horse and temporarily lost her memory. I thank my relationship with my brother for the way I am today. Countless experiences and memories orbit around lessons that I implement in my life to become a better person for not only myself, but for everyone that I encounter in my life.
Patel Brothers 