It is funny how something that seems so important for so long can be so easily forgotten when life continues to happen. I am speaking, of course, about my intentions with this book, that I just found after over fifteen years. I suppose I should do some kind of update since it has been so long since I last wrote in its pages, but there really is not too much to tell.
I continued my education, receiving first my Bachelors, at Brown; then my Masters, at Harvard; then a Doctorate in physics at MIT. I returned to Brown as an instructor and wrote several papers, all of which were published and received with high acclaim from my peers. I was able to meet my heroes, such as Tyson and Kaku. I met Hawking as well, but he was ... Well, he is Hawking. Nothing more to be said.
Ma retired about three years ago and sold her business for quite the tidy profit. A year later, Dad followed suit and sold his insurance company. The number of clients he had guaranteed that he would walk away a very comfortable man, if that had not already been the case. As it stands, with the monies accrued from the sale of their individual businesses, plus the $250k I paid for the farmhouse, their net worth has surpassed my own.
Aunt Linda is still out doing what she loves most: filming oceanic documentaries. I asked her once how long she planned to keep at it and she responded, "Till I get tired of it, or it gets tired of me." She's a regular Jacque Cousteau. I suppose anyone not my age will have to google that nameβha-ha. I was actually with her on assignment when she told me this. She was documenting a fish called a "pacu" that is indigenous to New Guinea. The reason for her filming is that the fish is currently undergoing an evolutionary change.
The pacu is a cousin to the piranha, only where piranha have sharp teeth to rend flesh from bone, pacu have rounded teeth, like human molars, because their primary source of food comes in the form of nuts that fall from overhanging trees. Due to a series of cyclones over the past few years, the trees that bear these nuts have been damaged, thus there is not enough to keep the pacu fed. The end result? The pacu have taken to attacking the locals who dare to swim their waters. Furthermore, the teeth of the pacu are becoming more pointed and sharp. The pacu are literally becoming piranha.