WEBVTT

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Thank you for indulging my
reading a couple of very

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old poems, but
they somehow still

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seem relevant as the epidemic
continues here in this country

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as well as across the globe.

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I thought I'd read next a little
excerpt from one of my essays

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from the time before I
was a medical student when

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I was a premedical student, and
when I come to a college campus

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in particular, I like to
read this little passage

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because it's about my
days at Amherst College.

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And like many families,
I think my family,

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when it was time for
me to go to college,

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we all packed into
the family Buick

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and drove off to visit
colleges around New England,

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and of course, my younger
brothers came along.

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And when we got to
Amherst College,

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they immediately sensed
that I really liked Amherst

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and that I might want to
go there and, in fact,

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learned that Amherst calls
itself the fairest college.

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That's very Amherst.

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I don't know if any
of you know Amherst,

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but it's kind of a place
that would call itself

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the fairest college.

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And so my brothers immediately
renamed it the fairiest

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college, knowing that I
wanted to go to Amherst,

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and I think that shows
that they knew something

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about me at that time
in my life that I wasn't

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quite ready to admit myself.

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But the reason I
tell you all this

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is because the
title of this essay

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is "The Fairiest
College," and I always

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read it in honor of my brothers,
who aren't here tonight.

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But anyway, you'll get to meet
them and some other members

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of my family here.

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So this is from an essay
called "The Fairiest College."

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"I finally left the
confines of suburbia,

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and after the now familiar
four-hour car ride,

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I arrived at Amherst.

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But this time, I
was one of her own.

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I was already becoming someone
else, a different person.

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The sun seemed a bit
less out of reach.

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At the freshman
orientation barbecue,

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my parents hovered
over my shoulder,

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eagerly pointing out
details in the scenery

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and in the architecture
or solicitously

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offering to get me more of the
watered-down pink lemonade, all

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the time avoiding what was
the inevitable goodbye.

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Huge fists of smoke
from the grilling steaks

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curled and rose in
the air, dramatically

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giving shape to the
growing resentment that

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began to boil in my blood.

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I was too indignant
about my own efforts

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at coolness being spoiled to
acknowledge either the strain

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in my father's voice
whenever he asked

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me a question or the film of
tears and my mother's eyes

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when she studied the cornice
at the top of a pillar.

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My father had assigned himself
the special responsibility

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of spotting potential
friends for me

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in the crowd, which I
found especially irritating

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because his criteria apparently
were, one, that they be male,

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two, that they have short hair,
and most important, three,

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that they have a
Spanish-sounding surname.

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This third criterion
required him

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to approach each
prospective candidate

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quite closely while
staring at his chest as

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he tried to make out the
lettering on a scrawled name

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tag.

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Pathetic, I thought.

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Even as he had spurred me on
to reach so high in echelon

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in American culture, still
he searched for traces

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of his own lost culture,
one I was glad to be rid of,

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that somehow might root me.

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After about 20 minutes
of this behavior,

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I told him plainly that
he was embarrassing me

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and pleaded with him to stop.

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I desperately
wanted to blend in.

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I was actually working
at being nondescript.

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Just then, he shouted,
squinting, 'Look, over there,

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Jorge Arroyo,' enunciating
the name clearly,

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rolling his Rs beautifully,
almost seductively.

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'Now, he looks like a nice guy.

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Why don't you go introduce
yourself to him and find out

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whether he's in any of
your premed classes?'

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That was when I glimpsed
the name tag myself,

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pinned to a colorful
plaid madras shirt.

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As he walked by, his face turned
towards an attractive woman

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who clung to his
elbow, my father

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lunged to grab his shirt sleeve.

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I winced, yet he had not heard
my father call out his name.

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And my father missed him
by more than a few inches.

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When I had collected
myself enough to speak,

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my voice was quietly
and coolly irate.

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I stated that I would not
select my friend solely

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on the basis of their ethnicity
or their preprofessional

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choices, that I wanted
to form friendships

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on the basis of shared interests
and not presuppositions,

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and that I would make a point
of not meeting this Jorge Arroyo

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and, for that matter, any
other Latinos or premeds

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precisely because he
wanted me to do so.

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Looking utterly
crestfallen, my father

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trailed off to get us some
more lemonade, drained

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of all his vicarious
excitement, not knowing

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that 10 years later, he would
be telling the same story

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gleefully, almost
triumphantly, taking the credit

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even for first identifying
the man with whom I've

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spent most of my adult life."

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That is a true story.

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If my dad were here, he'd
get up and say, oh no,

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that's not really
how it happened,

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and he'd try to tell you
his version of this story.

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But you got the real,
truthful version tonight,

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and Jorge is here
tonight to vouch for me.

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So you can ask him later if
that's how it happened or not.

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