It is funny how something that seems so important for so long can be so easily forgotten when life continues to happen. I am speaking, of course, about my intentions with this book, that I just found after over fifteen years. I suppose I should do some kind of update since it has been so long since I last wrote in its pages, but there really is not too much to tell.
I continued my education, receiving first my Bachelors, at Brown; then my Masters, at Harvard; then a Doctorate in physics at MIT. I returned to Brown as an instructor and wrote several papers, all of which were published and received with high acclaim from my peers. I was able to meet my heroes, such as Tyson and Kaku. I met Hawking as well, but he was ... Well, he is Hawking. Nothing more to be said.
Ma retired about three years ago and sold her business for quite the tidy profit. A year later, Dad followed suit and sold his insurance company. The number of clients he had guaranteed that he would walk away a very comfortable man, if that had not already been the case. As it stands, with the monies accrued from the sale of their individual businesses, plus the $250k I paid for the farmhouse, their net worth has surpassed my own.