Beatrice: It’s hard, getting to be a doctor.
Anna: I can do it.
Beatrice: I know you can study. But the hours, the crises, the commitment… What kind of a doctor?
Anna: Ears.
Beatrice: Hearing?
Anna: It goes back to my childhood. I’m deaf in my left ear.
Beatrice: No. You never said.
Anna: What’s there to say? I sit so people are on my right. I do fine.
_________
Voiceover
Simple wh- questions can yield surprise answers. At times, exposing some disability.
Yet hardship can be undervalued. Anna has a workaround for her left ear deafness. And it acts as a springboard to a decent career.
I had a friend who consistently pulled only average grades first two years in high school. Then his father died. Six months later my friend was getting top marks in all subjects, and was captain of the school tennis team. He went on to become a doctor, like his father. It was as if the torch had been passed.
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