Thanksgiving and the holidays in general always prompt a period of reflection for me. The year is winding down, the seasons are in transition, and before we know it, a new year is upon us, lofty resolutions and all.
This holiday season will be a bittersweet one. Though I am thankful for the time I will get to spend with many loved ones, I am reminded of a great presence I will dearly miss: my grandpa. A wise friend once told me during a difficult time, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." In the same vein, I would like to take the opportunity during this season of gratitude to express my appreciation for the memories I shared with my grandpa.
Dr. Kenneth Fujii was my grandpa. But to me, “Grandpa”
was far from being his only role. To me, he was my favorite teacher, an
extraordinary storyteller, my moral compass and inspiration to whom I looked
for the right thing to do. He was my hero and I grew up wanting to be just like
him.
A lover
of storytelling, Grandpa never failed to tell a good tale. From the books he
read and movies that he watched to the events featured on the front page of the
paper, his stories were vividly spun. I listened to these stories on the carpet
of my family room floor huddled around the heater in the winter, on the drive
to Lake Tahoe, during hikes through the woods and over the phone once I had
gone to college. But the
story I had become the most captivated by was not one you will find featured in
any film or novel. My favorite one was his.
Grandpa
first told me his life story when I was 10 years old. It was for my fifth grade
Heritage Report. Part of the requirement was to interview a family member and
learn more about my family’s history. I learned he lived during the Great
Depression, spent his teenage years in an internment camp during World War II,
served the country during the Korean War. And yet, despite all of these
obstacles, he established his own dental practice, raised a beautiful and
successful family, and never hesitated to give back to his community through
all of his service organizations.
What
resonated with me the most were the words at the end of his interview: “I hope
to leave behind as my legacy the virtues of what my parents preached; that is
to be honest, humble, study hard, work hard, persevere and have faith in
whatever you believe in.” In that, he said it all.
These
were not just words. Grandpa exercised these ideals in his every action.
He
constantly told me that his deepest wish was for each generation to be better
than the one preceding it. Better did not mean wealthier in a monetary sense.
It did not mean heightened social status. Better meant richer in opportunities.
Better meant heightened education and enrichment. Better in health. Better in
happiness.
Grandpa
was so forward thinking. Every so often, I would receive little notes in the
mail from him. Like this one...
To Karisa:
Subject: What It Takes To Succeed
Enclosed is an example of what this person did.
Thought you would be interested in this article.
Love,
Grandpa
Attached
was an article on a Gates Scholar who was planning to attend Stanford in the
fall.
Here’s
another…
To Karisa
Quotations
From Grandpa
He
carefully hand cut and pasted his favorite quotations collected from
newspapers, magazines, letters and speeches onto a sheet of paper.
MY FAVORITE IS THIS (he annotated in all caps)
“My interest is in the future because I’m going
to be spending the rest of my life there.”
-Charles Kettering, American Engineer and Inventor
Grandpa,
you will forever live in the future. Your stories and lessons, smile and humor,
generosity and humility, will live on through us. Your lessons are the ones
that I will teach my own children one day.
