I was taking the trash to the dumpster, when I noticed the lifeguard sitting by the pool, looking quite bored. "She's perfect!" I thought. "And she can't go anywhere for at least the next few hours."
I marched down to the pool side to have a chat with her. Sadly, I was met with a polite wave of the hand and a "soddy, my Engleesh ees noat so good." (I think she was Polish. They all are, you know. Or at least every life guard I have met this summer. )
I thanked the lifeguard, and gestured to the one other person within eyesight; the sunbathing girl in the black and bright blue bikini. "Does she speak English?"The polite Polette nodded her head, so I picked up my writing materials and marched over to the pool recliners.
"Excuse me." *silence* "Excuse me?" *more silence* "Excuse me!"
She finally turns her head to look my way. It is only then that I see the earbuds lodged in her head. I let out a sigh, relieved that she isn't deaf, as I had feared for a brief moment.
She greets me with a bright smile and a warm "hello." Nikki puts down her book (but doesn't close the book, so I can't see the title...again). Turns out, this bubbly 22 year year old UVA pre-med grad doesn't need any help talking. I think I have about 1/16th of everything she said actually written down in my notebook.
*Do I talk that fast? I was definitely making mental notes the whole time to slow down when I talk from now on.
Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. When you read, you begin with... Ah, forget it. There was this Indian girl (dot, not feather) living in Cleveland, with her parents, who loved her very much. In fact, they cared about her well-being so much that they took it upon themselves to put an advertisement, in the local Cleveland Indian community newspaper, looking for a nice, young Indian man. Well, they found one. Sadly, the young man was offered a job in Richmond soon after, so a large portion of the relationship was spent on the phone. They managed to sneak in some dates now and then, eventually found their way to matrimonial bliss, and finally, the joys of servanthoo...er, I mean parenthood. One year after the birth of their first baby girl, they decided that two was better than one, and along came little Nikki.
Though having only a slight difference in age, it became clear that big sister was the one to look out and care for the younger, even when Nikki shot up to twice her sister's height. To this day, Nikki still looks up to her big sister, while technically, looking down on her.
Growing up in an American-Indian home seems to have been a unique experience. Nikki has never been to India, and was raised in a mostly western environment, but her upbringing is definitely peppered with a bit of Indian spice. Her family ate Indian food about 2-3 times a week, and her father was a vegetarian, so they ate mostly vegetarian or chicken dishes. With a nostalgic look in her eye, Nikki relates that she did not have her first taste of steak until the age of 12. How did she live???
She lol's and gives me another tidbit on the Indian culture. "We're cheap. It has been drilled into me from the time I was small, no matter what store we go to, we head straight for the clearance rack. There is no such thing as spending $40 on a top."
*Hmmm. Sounds a little too close to home.
Her modest shopping habits do not seem to have had an impact on the magnitude of her professional aspirations. Even at a young age, This "not super Indian, yet not super American" girl was convinced that she was cut out for the medical field. "I want to be an ophthalmologist!" declared an eight year old Nikki. When asked what it was about this particular profession that so fascinated her in her youth, she replied in all honesty, "It was a big word, and it sounded cool."
Today, Nikki graces the halls of the hospital as an ER scribe. I make a jest about killing a person with a typo. She chuckles, but then replies, "Actually, yeah. If you make a typo, you could kill someone." Apparently, there are many tests and treatments with acronyms varying in only one or two letters, and when a doctor is hurriedly spouting out various prescriptions and diagnoses, it can get difficult to keep them all straight. But if you don't, there is a good chance the patient could have an allergic reaction to the wrong acronym, and die.
So what happened to the dream of making blind eyes see? It happened one day on the sweltering coasts of Nicaragua. Nikki had the rewarding opportunity to do some humanitarian work down there, and it changed her life forever. After building relationships there, and visiting four more times after that, she realized she had an opportunity to make a tangible difference in people's lives, and from that time on, medicine became her passion.
What makes Nikki smile big: 1) Sports. All sports. She played soccer all through college, and is currently training for a half-marathon. 2) Catching up with college friends and seeing what has become of her comrades in academic arms. 3) Music. She is currently taking guitar lessons at the Conservatory of Youtube.
That movie that Nikki just loves to hate: Nights in Rodanthe. "I just want those hours of my life back." She's usually a sucker for old people falling in love, but this was no The Notebook.
Physical Description (in her own words): "Tall, dark hair and skin, athletic build. I like my hair, and that I don't have to do anything with it to make it look good. I didn't used to like my brown eyes, because I thought brown eyes weren't as pretty as blue eyes, but now I like them. Especially since my eyes are lighter than those of everyone else in my family."
Now, is it her destiny to follow in the steps of her forefathers, and be joined in a slightly arranged Indian matrimony? NOPE. She likes her men like she likes her vanilla fudge sundaes: white, capped in brown, and popular with children. So the story goes, she fell for her green-eyed stud as he was playing with the little kids, in the sports camp she was teaching. I'm sure it helped that she already found him exceedingly attractive, but that just sealed the deal. Is it true love? "Not yet," she says. "I have never been in love." Nikki takes love VERY seriously. Despite being in several relationships, even serious ones, she has never spoken the three solemn words to any man. She is saving her love for when she knows it is sure.
I hope you find it, Nikki!
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