I was brought up to be a doctor.
That’s why I love science.
I became really good at it,
And was famous for being a good student at school.
My parents are regular people.
They didn’t know there were good or bad upbringings.
They didn’t have the best upbringing.
They worked hard to raise us the best way they could.
But it wasn’t always perfect, of course.

I finished high school with all its good and bad times.
I was still able to come up with justifications.
That was until I went to the Faculty of Pharmacy.
I was happy that God made my lifelong dream come true,
Even though I didn’t get a high score,
Or was among the top students.
I was excited to make my parents proud.

But something unexpected happened.
I expected the fighting to stop.
I thought they’d be proud of me.
But they started to use a specific word in our arguments,
That only made things worse.
That word would get to me,
More than anything else in the world.
I was shocked.

Whenever we had different opinions about a matter,
Or whenever I’d do something they didn’t like,
They’d say I was being stuck up.
They’d say,
“You’re a doctor now,
And think you’re better than us.”
This kept coming up,
That even my little sister said the same thing to me once.

I tried to figure out whether I was stuck up like they said.
I hadn’t even graduated,
And my parents were interested in academia.
Why did they forget that it was them who nurtured this dream of mine,
Ever since I was little?
All the private lessons,
Textbooks,
Revisions,
And the encouragement to study more,
Came from them.

Time went by,
And I graduated.
I realized that I didn’t like being called “doctor.”
I eventually stopped being a doctor altogether.
But they still label me as a “stuck up.”
“You think you’re better than us.”
“Did the education you receive teach you to disagree with us about everything?”
They said a lot of other things as well.

It took me a long time to believe that I’m not what they say I am.
I’m not stuck up.
I just have different opinions.
Not everything your parents say is true.