Well, then. (Part 7,842)

[featherynscale]

While we were at the movies on Saturday, my father called and left a message on my voicemail. The recording quality was not great, but I was pretty sure he said that I should call because my sister had had a baby. And I thought to myself, "Self, you just saw said sister, and she didn't look pregnant then, so that can't be right." And then I thought further, and determined that when I "just saw" her was actually at her wedding, last June. This line of inquiry led quickly to "Dammit, that's probably true then."

So I did what I normally do when I don't want to face up to things. I didn't call back. My state of engineered ignorance lasted until this morning, when I got an email from my father. As it happens, I did get it partially wrong. She's having the baby in May.

Now, my sister is an adult, and can do whatever she wants. But she was in school, studying to be a veterinarian. She loves animals, and has her whole life. Ever since she could form concepts about careers, she has wanted to be a vet. Her whole life, she has wanted to be a vet. And she didn't have that much more school to go. Guess what's not going to happen now.

But it's okay, I'm told, because her husband will support her. She doesn't have to finish school and go on to do what she's wanted to do her whole life, because Mike will take care of her now. Daddy took care of her until she got married, and now Mike will take care of her, and her goals are irrelevant. No matter that she was the only one of our generation that had any kind of serious goals. The relatives are thrilled for her.

Yark.

Comments

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I didn't see it as such a bad message until you put it in that context. Yark, indeed. Any chance she'll listen to you if you try to convince her to go back and finish in a couple of months/years? I know it's harder to restart, but maybe you, of the No Aspirations But Lots of Opinions, can convince her to follow her dreams after all.

After all, if Mike's going to support her, he can support her going back to school, too. :D

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Without the context, it's not a big deal. It just means I'll be someone else's auntie, and the line continues -- you breed so I don't have to, and so on.

We'll be working on the how to go back to school thing. But I'm betting, speaking with the weight of statistics and the knowledge of what my relatives are like, that she never will.