Omi

When my grandfather died in 1943, my grandmother, Omi as we call her in German, was left with two twin babies to raise and a farm to help run. Needless to say she had to be strong, fearless and loving. As the clock of life kept on ticking and time moved on, my mom, one of the twins, met my dad while vacationing in California. Ten days after meeting they were engaged. Six months later my mom was living in America. Growing up my sister and I traveled to Germany visiting our relatives every other year. These summers were a child's dream come true. Building fortresses in the hay stacks. Biking to neighboring friends farms. Playing in the fields. Riding tractors. All night BBQ's with big fires and the freshest meat you had ever tasted. Everything seemed like it was out of a fairy tale. After high school I deferred from college and went and lived on the farm for a year. This was the first time that I really experienced being with Omi. Being part of a working farm is no walk in the park. It really is getting up when the sun rises and working till it goes down. Everyday Omi would spend her entire morning making a big lunch (their dinner) for all the men working in the fields. I had many questions for Omi. Often times I would help her cook and during that time ask her questions about her past, my grandfather, life in the surrounding town; things that I knew to be a part of me, but knew so little about. Today Omi is 95 and still cooks the main dinner for everyone. She is one of the strongest human beings that I know. Of all the things that she has taught me one of the most valuable lessons I have learned from her has been about perseverance and believing in ones dream. In Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, Coelho writes about how important it is to listen to ones heart and to never give up on your dream. "Wherever your heart is, that is where you will find your treasure."