ANDREA & DAN “How to Check Your Knee Reflex”
Andrea is second year pre-med now, but I first met her when she was about your age. In fact, I used to babysit her. No kidding. SHE’S LEARNING HOW TO PERFORM SURGERY AND I USED TO CHANGE HER DIAPERS. This makes your mommy feel really old, Sebastian.
However, it’s also really interesting to think that I learned how to change nappies 20 years ago and haven’t changed one since then until you came along. I think that’s more than enough nappies for one person if you ask me and looking back, I have a few great stories about Andrea.
The first is that I taught her art. We’d sit together when she was little and needed some extra help in art classes and we talked about how to really see things. Not just put pen to paper, but see and then translate that into your hand and onto the page. It was a beautiful experience and some of the work she did was phenomenal. I was proud of her constantly and she was the most amazing pupil. Later, when she was applying for med school we worked together again. Proofing essays, discussing principles of logic. We’ve had some meaningful chats over the years, Andrea and I.
Another was when she was even littler. About two and a half or three, I think. Warrick, her brother was younger still, just a babe, and it was my job to take them to the park. I got Warrick ready first and put him in the stroller, which I hooked securely onto the garage door handle inside the garage to keep it from rolling or moving. Then I tied (the dog) Sammy’s leash to the handle of the stroller and went back to put Andrea’s shoes on at the top of the stairs inside the garage. Without me realizing, Andrea pushed the button to open the garage and I glanced up to see the door slowly raising. Warrick’s stroller was about a foot off the ground already and he was leaning over the side looking down at poor Sammy who was starting to stand on his hind legs and then tip toes as the leash pulled him up, up, up….
Of course, your mommy gathered her wits and everything was fine, but let’s just say we went to the park in a bit of a sweat.
Despite this incident, today Andrea is beautiful, successful, and partnered up with Dan: an awesome guy who will hopefully someday practice medicine alongside her. And because it’s every mommy’s dream for their child to become a doctor, here are Andrea and Dan to show you one of the things you might learn in medical school: How to test your knee reflex.