The Story of Keaton

This week on the blog I am going back to the main theme of having one of my mom’s interns as a subject for today’s blog. This week I am going to be talking about Keaton, who stayed with our family when my twin and I were very young. As for him, Keaton was the youngest optometry student we have ever had in our house, being about 22 years old in the 4th year of optometry. This is almost unheard of. The average age to begin optometry school is 22 years old, making him about four years in front of the curve. He had to face some adversity because some patients thought he was too young to be a doctor and did not trust him in the rotation. This was overcome by a pair of glasses that made him look much older than before. 

A little back story about Keaton is that he is from Myanmar, and went to college in Canada. If you do not know much about Myanmar, it is home to one of the longest ongoing civil wars. Although I was very young I do not remember the bulk of his stories, but I do remember that he was taught to conform to society and to obey rules. As a child, he was not allowed to play as much as one would in the United States for his time was spent studying or working for his family. 

When he came to our family, he first did not know how to deal with my twin sister and me, for he never had to take responsibility for kids our age. My twin and I were old enough to manipulate, but not quite old enough to take care of ourselves. The first night he looked over us he ended the night with curlers in his hair and makeup on his face because my twin sister insisted to give him a makeover. When growing up in Myanmar, he never learned how to ride a bike or how to swim. During his 3 months that he had stayed with us, Keaton was taught by my father how to ride a bike and how to swim. I will never forget how thankful he was that my dad taught this 22-year-old optometry student how to ride a bike. The best part about it is that the impact that we made on his life has lasted over 10 years for the still keeps in good contact with us. 

Now Keaton lives in San Francisco, married, and has a baby. Currently, he is working to move his mother over to the United States, but this process has become increasingly difficult since the current administration. Keaton will always hold a special place in my heart for he showed me at a young age how some children do not get the same opportunities to be kids when they are growing up. Thank you for reading this blog post and I hope you took something useful away.