At Brunch My Mother Called Me Useless Until I Canceled Twelve Thousand Dollars And Everything Changed

“I work,” I said.

“Forty-eight hours this week alone.”

“Sure,” he said. “But there’s a difference between working hard and working smart. Nursing is fine if you want to be comfortable with mediocrity.

Real success requires ambition.”

My mother nodded like she was absorbing important information.

“Jeffrey has a point, sweetheart. You were always content with just getting by.

Even in school, you did the minimum rather than pushing yourself.”

That was not true. I had graduated with honors while working two part-time jobs.

But they had either forgotten or never noticed, and pointing it out would only make me seem defensive.

“I save lives,” I said softly. “Children’s lives.”

“Of course you do,” my father said, in the placating tone that always came with a hook in it. “Society needs nurses.