my dad's coming of age story

In today's society, it is more common to see the mother as a figure or power in the family, so when I do interviews, I usually interview my mom. When we were asked to interview one of our parents about their coming of age, I thought it would be interesting to learn about my dad. In addition to learning about his coming of age, I wanted to learn about his story.

When he was young, he went from boarding school to boarding school all around Ireland because his parents were doctors and constantly moving to different hospitals and research labs. They were all Catholic schools with priests, nuns and lots of funny stories. When my dad was younger, he said that he joined the choir for the sole reason to meet girls, and that is why he always loves singing Broadway musicals and songs from movies.

He always knew that he wanted to be a doctor because his parents were doctors and his brothers were studying to become doctors. What was very unusual about his story was that he went to medical school at the age of 17. He always was one known to have fun during high school, so it was very surprising for everyone when they found out he was going to medical school 5 years early. Before he went to medical school, however, he decided to travel the world and expand his knowledge about medicine. Rather than going to some famous or well-renowned institution, he decided to go to South Africa to practice general surgery. When he was there, he also decided to have some fun and make some memories with his friend who was also training to become a doctor. When they had a few months to take a break, they decided to hitchhike from South Africa to Zimbabwe. During this time, they were 2 poor Irish guys with an Irish flag, a cardboard box that said "Zim please", and all their savings and belongings in a backpack.

Hitchhiking through Africa.

After he hitchhiked to Zimbabwe, he hitchhiked to Tanzania and lived there for a while. After Africa, he decided he wanted to go to Australia and live there for a while. He lived in a hostel, which is a place similar to a hotel with many beds (usually bunk beds) where backpackers could sleep temporarily when looking for somewhere cheap to stay. During the day, he would snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef, pick apples in an orchard with friends, and do other random activities.

After Australia, he decided to move to America to live with his older brother and sister-in-law. When he was there, he came to their work a few times to learn about their field of study, radiology. When he was there, he became good friends with one of the well-known doctors and was offered a radiology resident position. He had never thought about radiology because he had always studied general surgery, but he decided to take the position. This was when he finally realized that he had come of age.

This is his story about coming of age, "When I was 6 months into my first year in residency, having arrived alone in America, I was sitting in a teaching conference with 50 other residents, and a radiology case was presented. The senior class was quizzed first about the finding on the scan. Then, when nobody knew, they asked the third-year residents, then the second-year. Finally, they asked the first-years. Normally, in this situation, a first-year resident would not say a word. However, I had seen a case like this before. I blurted out the words 'villous adenoma of the colon', and the entire room went quiet, and the attending radiologists looked down and asked who said that. I put my hand up with trepidation, and this radiologist, who was notorious for trying to humiliate junior residents, turned around, looked at me, paused and said 'Correct, Doug, good job.' Some people in the room looked around at me with smiles on their face and some with a vaguely surprised look. At that point, I knew I was going to become a top-class radiologist."

disco skating is not for me

There is a place in Salt Lake called Classic Fun Center. At the center, they have bounce houses, laser tag, but most importantly, roller staking. They have a huge rink that is always available for open skate, but on Friday nights and Saturday nights, they have disco skate. Disco skate starts at 9pm and is where tons and tons of high school students and the occasional college students and parents go skating in fun outfits with friends to 80's music. I have been once before with friends and it was pretty rough, to say the least. It was one of the most fun nights of my life, but I was absolutely terrible at skating. I had never been skating before, so I took one practice lap holding on to my friends' hands, and then I went to the big rink with probably 100 kids in it. Surprisingly enough, I only fell once because some girl I did not know fell down right in front of me, and I tried to swerve to avoid her. It was very difficult to get the hang of stopping, too. My friends showed me how to put your toe down to rub against the ground, but when I tried, I fell yet again. However, as the night went on, I was able to skate on my own, and I even was able to pass people and skate in between people making a tunnel with their arms. It was a great night, but it was about a year ago, so when my friends asked if I wanted to go last weekend, I could not say no.

It was to celebrate my friend's birthday, so before we left, we got dressed and hung out at her house. We ate pizza and opened presents for a while before we left. After we got ready, we blasted music in the car on the way down to disco skate. When we arrived, we got our tickets and got on our skates. I started warming up by going from friend to friend and holding their hands until I got the hang of it. This time, I thought that I was going to be able to do really well and skate on my own without falling, but as the night went on, I realized that I was not going to be a professional roller skater after only going once. I tried going through the tunnel of people again, and the first time I did fine. The second time, however, there were people in front of me that were being very slow and we were all trapped under the tunnel of people, so there was a huge pile of people that fell, but I still got up and continued skating. As the night went on, I skated with my friends in groups and skating alone at times. When one of my friends came over to me, she grabbed my hand and pulled me very quickly around a corner, so fast that I fell backward and basically did a death drop onto my skate. It was rough, but after, I went and played laser tag with my friends against some random guys from another school. Besides all the falling, it was an incredible night with my best friends.

We love disco!

a day at the mall (not the shopping kind)

on the mall

Another D.C. story, what a surprise. The picture was from the first day of the trip. The night before we flew out, I went to a Khalid concert with my friends, so I was out until 1 am. By the time I got back to my house and showered and got into bed, it was already 2 am! I went to bed right away, because I needed to leave my house at 5:30 am the next morning to be ready for our flight to D.C. After a night of a solid 3 hours of rest, I dragged myself out of bed, took a quick shower to wake me up, put on my travel outfit that the whole grade needed to wear, got my bags and loaded them and myself into the car. I knew that I should feel exhausted, but it was impossible to be tired when I was filled with this much excitement. I arrived at the airport 15 minutes early and stood with my friends in the security line. When we loaded the plane, we all sat in the back, and it was the most fun flight of my life. We were respectful of the other passengers, but it was hard to be completely silent when we were on our way to D.C.!

When we arrived, it was bright, sunny, hot and most of all, humid. When we all loaded into our buses, we drove an hour to our hotel and unloaded our bags in our rooms. The rooms were disgusting, and the hotel smelled distinctly like fish. After we all settled in, we met in the conference room to say announcements about what we were going to do for the rest of the day. We listened closely as the teachers told us our instructions for the afternoon. We were going to walk to the National Mall (not the shopping kind, the grass kind in the middle of major D.C. monuments.) We grabbed water bottles and left on our walk. It was nice that it was sunny, however with the humidity and the heat, it did not mix well with the hair of many of my friends with long, curly hair.

After walking to the Mall, the whole class rushed to the drink stands and we all bought lemonades and ice cream and sat in the shade of large trees on the edge of the large, grassy space. It was perfect because we could all relax and cool down after our walk in the blazing hot sun. My friend, Sara, and I decided to whip out our clout goggles because they would make all of our friends laugh. I also got my camera so we would never forget this perfect afternoon. We took the picture of us shown above laying down under the large trees surrounded by our best friends.

After everyone had cooled down, we walked around the city to different monuments such as the Washington Monument. When we arrived there, it was beautiful because the sun was setting and, luckily enough, we were the only people there. However, this did not last for long. As we walked towards the monument to take pictures, we started to feel droplets of rain on our heads. There was not a lot of rain, so we figured it was nothing major and we could stay for a few more minutes. We were wrong. Within 2 minutes, the raindrops felt like they were as big as water balloons, and it was coming down as if we were in a shower. For many of us, this was terrible because we did not know it was going to rain, so we were in our sneakers. We ran and ran back to our hotel to try and escape the storm, but the rain was too much.

When we finally entered the lobby of Hotel Harrington, all of us were completely soaked head to toe! Our hair looked like we had just taken a shower and our clothes looked like we had just jumped in the pool. Not to mention the uncomfortable sloshing sound our sneakers that was noticeable every time we took a step. Furthermore, it was nearly impossible for our shoes to dry because it was so humid in D.C. However terrible this rain storm was, we still had the pictures of the amazing day to remember it for the incredible memory it was.

the most iconic bday

celebrating 15 with my favorite people

Not only was this day the best birthday I have ever had, but it was also the best night of my life. I have gone to multiple schools throughout my life and have become close with multiple groups of amazing friends, so when I had my 15th birthday, I invited 18 of my best friends who went to Rowland Hall, Parley's Park, the Winter School, and Ecker Hill. We danced and laughed and played and swam and watched the sunset and watched movies and explored the hotel and made the most incredible and unforgettable memories. It was such an amazing time to celebrate not dying for a year with my favorite people in the whole world.

The party started around noon, so we got everyone settled into their rooms and introduced everyone for about an hour before we got ready and headed down to the pool. We swam, relaxed in the summer sun, and took pictures to commemorate the afternoon. After we finished spending time outside, we went into our room and got ready for dinner. As one can imagine, it is not an organized sight to see 15 teenage girls rush around to get ready for dinner before their reservation. We had exactly an hour to shower, pick outfits, do makeup, do hair, have a quick snack, dance, and play our favorite songs. Because there were so many things we needed to fit into a short amount of time, it was a mad dash for everything. As a mix of everything from Ariana Grande to Travis Scott was blaring on the speakers throughout the room, girls were running from backpack to bedrooms to bathrooms to friends bags to the speaker. Once we finally all picked out our dresses and got changed, we decided to do each others hair and makeup in 10 minutes. It was a mad dash everywhere, and although it seemed like a nightmare, it was so much fun.

We barely made our reservation, but we made it! Once we finally sat down, we really wanted to go to play some arcade games that were just around the corner from our table. My mom gave us each $2 which was enough for a couple rounds of whatever we wanted to play, but we were so hyped up for dinner, that we all pooled our money together and took pictures of us together. We decided to take a picture of us celebrating, and that's what led to the picture I chose to write about.

After dinner, we all went to the bowling alley that was also around the corner from where we were sitting and we bowled for ages. It was also funny because the boy who was working there was in my friend's chemistry class and took my other friend's sister to a school dance last year. Once we finished bowling, we changed into sweatshirts and warm clothes and went outside to roast marshmallows. It was cold, but we warmed up by dancing, running around, and sitting by the fireplace. After that, we went back up to the room, and the night was a blur from there. All I can remember was that I have never felt a feeling as purely joyful as I did the night I celebrated my birthday surrounded by the people I love most in the world.

to my 30 y/o self - the worst of dc

Dear 30-year-old Emma,

You probably won't even remember that you wrote this when you are 30 because, hopefully, you are married/in a serious relationship and have a great job and have more important things to do than read a letter from 9th-grade Emma. The longest time that I would be able to keep track of and remember a letter would be from when you were at Rowland Hall in 8th grade and you and your whole class had to write a letter to your senior self. I know that all of my friends there are going to have a "Kumbaya moment" according to Mr. Robs when they are all seniors and open their letters together. I hope that you remembered to email him and went to Rowland Hall to open your letter with your old classmates. Who would've thought that going to such a small school for such a short time would've made such a huge impact on your life?

Speaking of Rowland Hall, I would like to remind you of one of the best but most awkward weeks of your life in 2018. You will definitely remember the class trip to DC for the rest of your life because if you don't right now, you have just disappointed your 9th-grade self. Anyways, DC was one of the best weeks of your life, and 2018 was one of the best years. During the week, you stayed at the Hotel Harrington that smelled like fish and had a thermostat that was literally a piece of metal sticking out of the ceiling. There was also torrential downpours of rain that completely soaked you and your friends every day. There was a baseball game that you were supposed to go to, but due to the rain, it was canceled. This caused a lot of stress for the teachers because they did not have a backup plan, but it was Rowland Hall, so they got 10 escape rooms for the entire grade. After we all went to the escape rooms, the entire grade had a choice to either see a horror movie or Avengers: Infinity War. Most of my friends and I decided to go to Avengers, but you might recall that DC was a major couples week. Grace and Seabass were dating, Sarah and Connor were dating, Robbie and Camryn were dating, Jenna and Ozzie were kind of dating, you and Gus were dating, and it was just a crazy week. Half of the relationships didn't make it back to Utah.

At the theater, it was extremely awkward because the seating arrangement was (from left to right): Henry, Lizzie, Camryn, Robbie, Ozzie, Jenna, Gus, Tenny, Casey, you, and Matt Baron. The movie was 2 hours and 40 minutes, so there was a lot of time for stuff to go down. The entire movie experience was just plain awkward because half the time, Camryn was sprawled on top of Robbie over the large, reclining-seat barrier. You being your awkward 8th-grade self was feeling very uncomfortable, but very relieved when Gus came to sit next to you instead of Matt. You couldn't even focus on the movie, because so much was going through your head. You mostly thought of what was going to happen for the rest of the week with everyone, and so this thought occupied and distracted you for the last hour of the movie. Even this was one of the most awkward weeks of your life, you wouldn't trade the experience with your best friends for the world.

my 88 minute nightmare

Every white day, I have a class that I expected to be a fun and fresh class at the beginning of the year, but now, I cannot regret taking it more. The subject itself isn't bad at all, the problem is my teacher. For this story, let's call her Ms. B. Ms. B is the worst teacher I have ever had in my entire life. When I met her on the first day of school, she seemed nice and fun, and I thought that I was going to really enjoy her class. Frankly, I was wrong. For the first few lessons, she was a good teacher because she had interesting experiments and would give us food or blankets or heaters if we wanted them. She would also let us use our phones if we needed to. I really enjoyed the subject and would look forward to her class every other day. However, now, her true colors have come out.

First of all, she is not a good teacher. She will give us homework assignments and not even explain the topic in enough depth for students to understand in class. Then, if we ask her a question, she will say that we should have been taking notes in class. She doesn't even specify in class when there is an important topic! It annoys me and all of my friends who take the class. Furthermore, she does not understand the term "teacher." She will always tell us that she is a resource to use in class and to ask her if we have any questions about the material, but when we ask her a question, she tells us that we should have been listening! My friends and I literally draw straws to see who has to ask her the next question because we know that she will get angry if we ask her a question. I also have to limit myself to 2 or (on a good day) 3 questions per class period or else she will flip out and hate me even more. She will also tell us to go to the subject tutors that are at school before class if we have any questions, but when we talk to them, they say that they have never learned what we are being taught. The reason why they say this is because Ms. B is new to the school and does not know the amount of depth that other teachers are going into different subjects. This leads to her students having to learn everything from Khan Academy and MSJChem.

This also isn't something that happens once a month, it happens every single class period. The other day when I had her, I was talking to my friends during a lab because someone highlighted the wrong thing, and she told us that if we talked one more time, she would give us a 0 on the lab. She wasn't even explaining anything or telling us instructions!

Although she irritates me, I do have coping mechanisms. One of these is to vent to my friends who experience the same pain. If I hold all of the annoyance inside of me, I feel like I would probably explode, and that would definitely not be a healthy approach to my problem. Another is to listen to calming music because music definitely has a huge effect on me. The song I listen to at the beginning of my day determines my mood for the rest of the day. As a result, if I listen to good music, it will counterbalance the mood my teacher puts me in.

argentina

Last month, I crossed another country off of my bucket list. My family and I went down to South America to see Argentina. For the past 11 and 1/2 years, I have been doing a martial arts called Taekwondo. I am a second-degree black belt, and my 11-year-old brother is a red belt. Every year for the past 3 years, we have gone to a South American country to compete in the Pan-American Games. The first year we found out about this competition was from my instructor who lives in Salt Lake. When she told us about this competition, we jumped at the opportunity because what better excuse to see a new country than something you know your parents will support and agree to? Currently, my brother, Connor, is in his seventh year in the Spanish Dual Immersion at Ecker Hill Middle School, and I am in AP Spanish Language at Park City High School, so these trips to South America are a great way to use our Spanish.

With all that in mind, we decided to ask our parents. My dad has always been a fan of South American food, and he likes to think that he can speak Spanish, so he was on board with the idea. My mom is the better planner in my family, so she was very excited with the idea, but she needed to make sure that we were completely willing to train and study to be able to make the trip worth its while. My brother and I were prepared to work as hard as we needed to be able to go on our trip.

This is how our South America trips started, and as I said before, we have gone for the past three years. Uruguay was our first competition location in 2016, then we went to Peru the next year, and last month, we went to Argentina. Being able to go to Argentina was surreal. Everything was so incredible, from the food, to the buildings, to the history, to the people. We went to Buenos Aires which was like a South American version of Paris. The architecture there was beautiful, and there was history around every corner. My favorite part of the city was definitely the food. One of the places we stayed had a huge Argentinian buffet, and there was an area for every kind of food. There were cheeses imported every morning and steaks and porks and fish. They also had a pasta bar where they would cook handmade pasta and create custom sauces. The gnocchi there was the most incredible pasta I have had in my life. From the nation's capital, we went to Iguazu Falls which was unbelievable. The falls were huge and they extended for almost a mile. They went into Brazil, too.

We ended our trip in a small town called Corrientes. We stayed there because our taekwondo competition was in the next town over, Resistencia, however, there were no hotels there. Once, we went to the airport to go from Iguazu Falls to Corrientes, there was an international communication error, and our flight got delayed 6 hours. We decided that it was going to take too long to wait for our plane, and we needed to get to Corrientes in time for the competition the next day, so we got a taxi driver to drive us 7 hours without internet to Corrientes. It turns out, that drive was better than expected because I was able to admire the Argentinian countryside with my family.

Finally, my brother and I had our tournament, and I got 4th place in all of North and South America for my event. My brother got 6 medals in his 6 events. Simply put, Argentina is an incredible country with amazing people and amazing food and amazing culture. I would definitely go back and recommend to anyone of any age to visit it.