College Essay # 33 - University of Oregon

33. If you could hold a conversation with someone (living or deceased) you consider significant, whom would you talk to and what would you talk about? Describe your conversation. (University of Oregon)

It was 2006 during an exuberant summer’s day in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I clearly remember the blue skies, the smell of the barbeque grill, the freshness of the sprinklers my sister and I were running around, and the taste of my mother’s homemade pizza. Little was I to know that the exciting day was going to end with me going to bed without saying giving my parents a hug, a kiss, and repeating a farewell for the night to my parents.

From my early childhood, my mother and my grandfather (her father) were extremely close. They talked about everything and anything, and to this day, I cannot remember at time that the room was silent when the two of them were talking. My grandfather was extremely dear to my mother. More than being a father towards her, he was a kind, light-hearted friend, who would tell the truth and who would make the most of his life.

When I was living in Bangladesh, we used to visit Nepal for every festival, every vacation, but it had to be fate that my family had to hear about my grandfather’s death without being able to see him for 3 years. We were in the United States for 3 years, since 2004, and our family had not met any of our relatives in Nepal for those 3 years. Hearing about his death was the most devastating time in my life.

My mother, my aunt, and my sister had gone out for a walk after the barbeque and I was back at home helping my father and my uncle clean up after the “party.” I clearly remember my father’s youngest brother calling him up from Ohio to give him the news he received from Nepal. I could sense my father’s sadness immediately. He started acting peculiar and asked me if I wanted to go on a drive. It was around 11 that night, and it was way past my bedtime. I was surprised at that suggestion, but I took the opportunity to have a “night out” so to speak. We went on a long drive and didn’t come back home until midnight. I remember seeing tears fall out of my father’s eyes for the first time in my life. I knew something was wrong, and I felt like the world was collapsing around me.

When I got home, my father told me to go to bed. I told my sister to go to sleep and that everything was okay, and then crept outside my room and sat inside the bathroom while my dad broke the news to my mother. After she heard, she calmly told my dad a dream she had the previous night. She told him that in her dream, she saw him going on his morning walks, but instead, it was nighttime instead of early morning. She explained that he was walking and suddenly walked into a hole on the road, and his heart fell out.

I screamed from the bathroom and my dad came running to me. He caught me and told me that I shouldn’t be listening. I cried to my room and my dad comforted me to sleep. I wish I would have had that conversation with my mom while she was explaining her dream. I would have asked her so many things. How she felt when she woke up, whether he spoke to her in her dream, what she would have said to him if she saw him for the last time, etc. Knowing my mother, she would have answered that question, calmly and truthfully. That dreadful day would have been a lot better if those questions would have been answered.      

Number of words: 613