If you've known me for a while, you will know that I am my grandpa's girl. It's been this way as long as I can remember; probably since I was born, he's adored me and I adore him. Every Friday night at 11pm without fail, I call him and we talk, usually only for 5 to 10 minutes, because he's afraid of taking too much of my time. Our Friday night talks have been a tradition, also for as long as I can remember. At home, my dad is the one who makes the calls, and then he hands the phone to me when it's my "turn." When I went to college, those 15 digits that make up his phone number became ingrained in my memory as I punched them into my cell every week. We talk about the same things each time: we ask if the other is happy, whether the other is exercising (sometimes I have to lie), and he tells me to be careful and never accept food from strangers or make bad friends etc.
My grandpa has three things that he loves to talk about. First of all, he loves recalling the times he spent with me when I was a little girl and all the games we played together...how I made him watch Barney over and over, how I would "drive" him to San Francisco in my toy car and make him buckle his seatbelt, and most specifically this one time when he fell asleep and I crawled upstairs and put on a pair of giant sunglasses. He laughs so hard every single time he tells that story. The second thing is this story from when he was living in Japan as a teenager, and some girl asked him out on a date, but he declined. He said that she was very sad, and to this day, he feels so guilty for rejecting her and would like to apologize to her. Never mind that she's probably either been married for a bunch of years or might not still be alive...it bothers him, even to this very day! That's how detailed my grandpa's memory is, and how much he considers other people's feelings. Finally, he loves to call me Diamond Jennifer, and he loves to explain why. He says that I am like a diamond--an ordinary rock on the outside, and the more you rub it and uncover it, the more precious it becomes and the more it shines, and you realize how rare it is. He's possibly the only person who thinks this, but it's the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me. He tells me this EVERY time we talk.
I hope that every person has someone out there who means the world to him/her, and vice versa. I am so blessed to be able to say quite confidently that I mean the world to my grandpa, and he means the world to me. Our lives are so different and moving in opposite directions. I feel like I'm reaching the end of my beginning, while he is reaching the beginning of his end...my life constantly becomes more complicated, while his becomes more uncluttered.
Love comes in many different shapes and sizes...the love between my grandpa and me is the simplest kind that I can think of. We aren't even very close in that there are many things about me that he doesn't know, and I am sure there are many things about him that I don't know. To be honest, I don't even understand 40% of the stuff he says to me. Chinese is neither of our best language, and we both have a pretty bad accent (his Japanese, mine English). We rarely see each other, and when we do, we are even more rarely alone, just the two of us. Usually we're surrounded by a vast chattering crowd of family (most of the chattering coming from my mom, of course) and a large amount of food. But no matter what, we somehow always gravitate toward each other, like two peas in a pod. I have so much admiration for and faith in my grandpa...I think we both pray for each other, in the same principle but for different goals. He prays for my success in the future, and I pray for his success in preserving the present. He is one of the healthiest people I know, never having gone to the doctor ever since he was a child, because he simply takes care of his body so well. When we hike, he's the first up the mountain with a spring in each step. I love the way his eyes crinkle when he laughs, and the way his hands are constantly making circular gestures when he talks. I love how he tells jokes that don't really make much sense and then laughs super hard afterwards, and I love how every once in a while he randomly turns to look at me, pats me on the shoulder, and goes "Oh! Jennifer! You are the best!" (in Chinese). If I could have one wish, it's that he'll be here when I get married. (Well, I suppose the wish that should come before that is that I will get married.) I don't know if there is anything in the world that could make me happier.
