It was the most oddly timed situation I have ever come across. It was ironic and quite frightening. All I could hear in my head at the time was my mother’s crying and screaming for help.

It was junior year of high school and I was in my favorite class of the year, Anatomy and Physiology. My teacher, a doctor, was one of the most skilled and intelligent men I have ever met. He was my favorite teacher in my high school career and made my days better simply because we bonded over having a beard. I took this class because I had a genuine interest in the human body, and I wanted to learn about everything I can while in this class. I was sitting in classs while I get a text from my Mom, which I never get during school because she does not want to distract more. I’m assuming it was urgent so during class, I took a peek at my phone and read the notification about twenty times and even turned my brightness up to make sure I wasn’t misreading.

My teacher definitely saw me but he didn’t mind because he knew I was doing well with everything thus far. At the time, we were learning about the skeleton and the major groups of bones. We learned it one step at a time and a week was dedicated to a certain area of the body. This week we were learning about the knee and below disregarding the ankle. We were discussing the patella, and I always thought this was my favorite bone only because it sounds like my last name. I was fairly good at learning the bones and the patella was just another fancy way of saying kneecap.

My mom’s text message reads,” Hi. I fell lol. They took me in an ambulance and I’m at the hospital.”

Of course I was petrified because that is not a normal text to recieve on a wednesday afternoon during class. I immediately start looking at the time because all I wanted to do was leave to go to the hospital. I text my brother who was also not informed yet until I was, and he texts me, “I’m picking you up by the side of the school. Just walk about by the gym doors near the locker room. There are no cameras there so its easier.”

Not to sound dramatic, but I’m sitting at the back of the classroom absolutely sweating and not focused on my teacher. As the class ends, I speed walk out of the room and make my way outside to meet my brother. I learned something about my brother that day. He left his class at Newark and raced home in less than 25 minutes so that we could go comfort our Mom and make sure she is okay. He did the most because he did put family first. This really opened up my eyes about the type of person my parents raised because I decided I want to have the immediate impulse to put my family first. We were both bonding in the car, obviously wondering what happened and how she fell so bad that she had to go to the hospital. He was only a freshman in college at the time, yet he still was comfortable with driving and making his way everywhere when it was necessary. Along with the previous blog post, I mentioned how scary driving was for me so seeing my only role model do this for me and my Mom was very special to me. Because of him, I told myself I would be more independent and caring for others.

We get to the hospital and find out that our Mom had ruptured her patellar tendon and broke the bone too by slipping on something by the stairs of the office building she was in. I felt like I was in my anatomy class all over again while the doctors were explaining the situation and what the plan was for her surgery and recovery. It was like I never missed class at all.

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.

At the age of 16, a lot of things are happening. Remember when it was the weekends and you would go out to parties with your friends and participate in underaged drinking and smoking in someone’s low ceiling basement? That was never me. I was the one that stayed home most days even if it was doing legal things like getting food or watching a movie and I blame my introverted personality for that. I did not want to go out and drive places or go with my friends who were still at the time terrible drivers. The only people I trusted to drive me around were my dad and my brother.

I have a lot of family in the east coast, scattered mostly down south in Virginia and Georgia. Our road trips do not end since we go down there often. Because of these frequent road trips, we encounter several bad drivers that need to take their road test again and we’ve experienced too many close calls. Ever since then, I never wanted to get into driving and I did not trust anyone whenever I sat in the car.

My parents did not understand my fear of driving but that was not their fault and I actually extol them for making me get my license as early as possible. The process leading up to actually getting my license was unbearable and absolutely nerve wrecking. The driving school instructor even described my driving as “too careful.” My brother took matters in his own hands and decided to teach me how to drive from that moment. A few days later I got behind the wheel with him in the car, and the first thing he said to me was “focus on the road.” I smirked and thought, “what else would I do behind the wheel?” He guided me step by step on what to do from the time I unlocked the car to the time I was pulling back in the driveway.
While I was cruising through our town and practicing how to make turns, I had a brain fart and forgot how to be patient. I thought I could make the left turn in time before the car passed me first and decided to floor it and make the turn and at that point I had to commit so I quickly turned and almost caused a collision with another car. After this situation, my brother just reassured me that I have to make better judgement calls and be patient while on the road.

“We aren’t in a hurry, man. Don’t worry about making turns fast or slow. You’re still learning and that is part of the process.”

I already knew the lesson was a success despite the slip up because he was patient and trusted me as I was driving. I noticed his body language and the way he explained certain situations and techniques. Describing him as calm wouldn’t do it justice because he made it seem like I have been driving for years now and that boosted my confidence on the road. I was a defensive and safe driver and my fear of getting behind the wheel was significantly reduced.

I took his mentality and continued to live by that and further expand on it as he would. He not only steered me into a path that taught me how to be more understanding, patient, relaxed, and quick at thinking, but he also helped me overcome the obstacles I faced in the rest of my high school years and currently in college. Beyond school, everyone I encounter notices how gentle, calm, patient, and understanding I am. The only thing that makes me happy is knowing that I have made an impact on many people in my life. The road was clear to me.

Memories never fade.