An Education

Ashley Kirk: Berkeley, CA 5-15-11

This past weekend the oldest of my [all] younger sisters graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Molecular Biology. It truly seems like just yesterday that Ashley first departed our hometown of beautiful and sunny San Diego en route for the cold and uber liberal college town, Berkeley, CA USA. I am not quite sure what compelled her to a). trade the always beautiful and sunny Southern California weather and year-round tan for Bay Area hard-nips-coldness and tree huggers, and b). Study molecules and soil samples and primates and spiders and all the other things she would fervently tell me about during our catch up phone chats and visits. Why wasn't she into Dance, Romanticism and the Arts in general like I was? Looking at the Periodic Table of Elements gives me terrible anxiety and makes me go cross eyed. Ashley dreams about it with a smile on her face. Biology is to Ashley what Dance and James Joyce were to me-- magical. Biology is the only class I ever failed and had to retake and even then, I barely skated by with a C (I cried for hours about it). I could write 25 pages on Oedipal Theoretic Evolution in my sleep, or the shower (where I do my best thinking), but ask me to write about cell theory or genetics-- forget about it.
Ashley has both impressed and baffled me, not only by her choice of major and school location (ok, ok so UC Berkeley was ranked as the second best school in the world this year by The Academic Ranking of World Universities-- big whoopee! ;), but by her decision to remain a student as long as she possibly can. She has her sights set on a PHD and who knows what from there. As her big sister, I couldn't be more proud of her decision to honor her hunger for research and knowledge. I really do believe she will contribute to the world of Biology research in a very big way and I'm just happy to be lucky enough to call her my sister and brag about her every step along her path to Academia excellence.

As I watched Ashley cross the stage on Sunday, it became ever so clear to me that my sisters are growing up to be bright and capable young women in their own right. They will be successful without my assistance; they will fall in love, have their hearts broken, mend them, fall in love again, make mistakes and learn and grow from them. They will experience all the wonderful and not-so wonderful things we all do, and must, to become better, smarter and stronger people. I can not protect them from life, but I will always be here to love and support them through it all and celebrate the high points with way too many hugs, kisses and "I'm so proud I could cry's." They will one day get married and start beautiful families and accomplish everything their not-so-little-anymore hearts desire and they will do this all on their own because they are hard wired for it. I am a proud big sister of Ashley, Jennifer, Megan and Jacqui, today and always <3