Live Your Life Like It Was A Dream, Not A Nightmare
I have heard this said, “Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation,” and “Live your life so that if it were a story, would people enjoying listening to it.” I like the latter. We all have a story we would like to tell about our lives, to our friends, to our family and more than likely, eventually to our children. If you spend your whole life living some one else’s dreams, would you even enjoy telling it? I wouldn’t find it likely that anyone would.
I figure I have one chance to live out my life and it is up to me to make sure that it is lived in the best way possible. When I think about medical school, about graduate school, about my life and my family and what family I want to have as I grow older I realize now I am in a very fortunate position. I can decide what I want to do without having to support children at my young age, I can leave my country for trips and experiences that could last years, I could become anything I want to work hard enough to become, and all of this is possible to me right now. My parents didn’t have this decision for long at all before I was born and because they both worked so hard, I know I now have all of these choices.
Being in my grandma’s house over the summer has shown me a lot of things. Maybe most, I have seen how vulnerable childhood was and how much power my parents had to mold my life. Most of my childhood is a soft, faded memory but a very positive one with very little negative experiences. I have very few people to thank for that as much as my parents. My teachers, mentors, friends, friend families and extended family have all been great, which I gratefully acknowledge, but at my core my parents have been my strongest influences. I have them to thank for that, not in order importance but rather in order of partnership, my father Nat Hellstrom and my mother Judy Hellstrom. Thank you so much for such hard work. I love you both very much. If I am living a dream, which I am convinced that I am, it is my mother and father who rocked me and put me to sleep in the first place.
I figure I have one chance to live out my life and it is up to me to make sure that it is lived in the best way possible. When I think about medical school, about graduate school, about my life and my family and what family I want to have as I grow older I realize now I am in a very fortunate position. I can decide what I want to do without having to support children at my young age, I can leave my country for trips and experiences that could last years, I could become anything I want to work hard enough to become, and all of this is possible to me right now. My parents didn’t have this decision for long at all before I was born and because they both worked so hard, I know I now have all of these choices.
Being in my grandma’s house over the summer has shown me a lot of things. Maybe most, I have seen how vulnerable childhood was and how much power my parents had to mold my life. Most of my childhood is a soft, faded memory but a very positive one with very little negative experiences. I have very few people to thank for that as much as my parents. My teachers, mentors, friends, friend families and extended family have all been great, which I gratefully acknowledge, but at my core my parents have been my strongest influences. I have them to thank for that, not in order importance but rather in order of partnership, my father Nat Hellstrom and my mother Judy Hellstrom. Thank you so much for such hard work. I love you both very much. If I am living a dream, which I am convinced that I am, it is my mother and father who rocked me and put me to sleep in the first place.
