Selfish Gene

By afparungao - Sunday, June 06, 2010

Disclaimer: This isn't about the book by Richard Dawkins, so spare me. I lack the talent to come up with witty titles on most days.

On certain events when my father meets his doctor friends and talk about their children, I feel a bit indifferent. I feel like I'm out of place when they start talking about their offspring following their lead in medicine. They'll start talking about how their children manage their clinic and they're now on semi- retirement because they're sure someone's going to take care of the business. 

Then the conversation would turn to me, with his colleagues asking what I take up/ took up in college. 
Doctor: So, what's your course?
Me: Journalism
Doctor: (frowns a bit) Why didn't you take up Optometry or took up medicine?
Me: I want to write (smiles)
I've actually lost count of how many times this scenario happened ever since I started going to college. In my defence, I initially wanted to be an Optometrist because I know how much they make (hehe) and how lucky they'll get if they work abroad, but when I told my dad about it, he told me to think of other courses. I then thought of studying Architecture, because I've always loved houses, but then changed my mind when I realised how much math is involved. And since I love words and writing, I decided I should take up Journalism and never regretted the decision.

Probably until now.
Well, somewhat.

When I think about it, I feel kind of bad that nobody's getting Papa's office. I feel sad that we might end up selling all of his equipment because my siblings and I are so selfish not to think about them. I fear that what Papa established for over 40 years, will be put to waste because nobody wanted to take up Optometry. My (half) sisters took up Psychology, Education, Business Management, while my brother took up History. There's really nobody eligible among the five of us to run it, unless we hire someone who will do his duties come his retirement. 

But what I like about my dad is that even if no one among us took Opto, he's happy he was able to put all us to school until college without pushing us to something we don't like. In one of our recent conversations, he told me what's important is that I took up something I like and not because he told us to do so. He'd rather have us all selfish with out dreams rather than we do something against our will. 

That's probably one of the best things about him. I'm glad he's my dad, despite his temperaments. 

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