Chosen Inheritance
My father was a good man.
He didn’t talk much about what he carried.
He just carried it.
My grandfather passed away early.
My father was the oldest son.
When he finished high school, his test scores were good enough to get into 高雄醫學院.
At the time, becoming a doctor meant years of school, internship, and waiting before earning anything.
The family couldn’t wait that long.
So he chose pharmacy.
Not because it was easier.
Because it was faster.
He could start earning in four years.
That mattered.
Years later, my uncle wanted to come to the U.S.
My father worked, saved, and put together enough money for a plane ticket and my uncle’s first semester.
That was all he could do.
He told him that clearly.
No promises.
No follow-up plan.
No control.
My uncle came to the U.S., tutored other students, worked part-time around campus, and built his life on his own.
I respect that deeply.
International phone calls were expensive back then.
They didn’t talk much.
My uncle never came back to Taiwan.
Not until we went to him.
When my uncle passed away, my aunt asked everyone not to travel.
She didn’t want people coming.
There was a public obituary.
So I went anyway.
I didn’t go because anyone expected me to.
I went because I knew my father would want someone there.
I was the only one.
At the end of my father’s career, he became the director for the Pacific region of a Japanese pharmaceutical company, Daiichi.
After he retired, he helped set up Taiwan’s healthcare system.
He was a great man.
When my wife says, “You are just like your father,”
she means it as criticism.
Most kids don’t want to be compared to their parents.
For me, it’s the highest compliment.
Not because I copied him.
But because I chose what to carry forward.
Responsibility without performance.
Support without control.
Action without explanation.
We don’t become our parents by accident.
We inherit many things unconsciously.
But the most important inheritance is chosen.
This wasn’t taught to me.
I recognized it later, looking backward.
Another lesson collected quietly,
off the course.