This week I am close to finalizing my oral history project with my extraordinary person, which is my grandpa, Antonio Abril. This oral history project is a memoir about my grandpa’s life and through all the challenges and obstacles that arose, he was able to overcome them and provide our family with all the support and love we needed. As we were at the dinner table flipping through the endless albums of photos, we reminisced about the family trips across the country, laughed about the crazy hairstyles he tried, and danced at the family fiestas, there was one consistent factor in all the images: smiles. Even if my grandpa could not recall the memory or context of the image, it still brought happiness to him seeing our entire family together. From this oral history project, I realized I am more alike to my grandpa than I thought I was. Before this project, my grandpa and I only had a relationship where we bonded by humor with jokes or him always giving me advice about driving safe, eating healthy, etc. Now I know my grandpa and I are alike by our outlooks on life, we both prioritize family to be a source of joy and help and we both understand that hardships in life provide an opportunity to grow as a person, and we rely.
After these heartwarming conversations with the senior residents and my grandpa, I realized maybe we are not so different after all. Age is a number to indicate how long you have been walking around on this earth, but that should not dictate how you should live your life. New realization is I will live my life with pure intentions of gratitude, happiness, and appreciation for others. Who knows life may start getting hectic again with all I am doing for school, work, and campus organizations and I may lose sight of what’s life about, but I think I will be okay my grandpa is only a phone call away.