Leave the Path

Here’s a few truths about me: I’m a dork. I’m a girl. I’m young-ish. I’ve convinced some people that I’m clever. I’m married and happy about it. I speak a few languages and love to travel. I cook pretty well. I worry about things, especially things I can’t seem to change. My favorite color is green. My “bum skill” is that I can make little animals out of bits of trash. I like to think I’m unique.

I believe I’ve found in the past, and continue to search for, my own way of doing things. That’s not to say, of course, that I’m a rebel. I’m really not. I do many things exactly as others would like to see them done. But neither am I a conformist. I consider suggestions I get from others, and I weigh my own evidence. Sometimes it takes me a while to make a decision.

I have what I think is the start of an interesting life story: I had a classic American childhood in a small NC town, but I was always facinated by stories of other people and palces. I left for NCSSM (a public boarding school) at 15, where I met dozens of dorks like me. I skipped down 15-501 to UNC Chapel Hill for university, but initially found it rather dull. Sophmore year I spent in Grenoble, France, where I had many exciting adventures met Emre, who was a neighbor in my dormitory, and we had fabulous friends from all over the world. I was not, despite the affection of my family, thrilled to come back to the states. I went to visit Emre in his native Ankara in October of 2004, and then he came to visit me at Christmas of that year. We decided to both stay here until I finished my degree, and to make that happen we got married on pretty short notice. Earlier his year I started UNC Med School, so it looks like we’ll be based in Chapel Hill for a few more years. And one day, with any luck, I’ll be a doctor.

[Jessica Saricicek in Amasra on the Black Sea]