What Drives Us
This past Saturday, Huyson and I went to visit Naima’s family. Adam, who’s 5 years old, went to the ER 25 times in the past year. His younger sister, Nufa, loves to play with all of her brother’s games. She reminded me of myself when growing up, constantly fighting my older brother, Raj. Just like him, Adam was better at word games like Scrabble, while Nufa was better at drawing. Adam gets jealous when his younger sister is better than him, but that’s what drives him.
Since Adam has brittle lungs, he wasn’t able to play Aeris with much success initially. He tried over and over again, but didn’t over exert himself. Little sister tried playing and started navigating the hot air balloon through the skies. She too was unsuccessful the first few times, until she wasn’t. She blasted through atmosphere.
A huge smile appeared on her face, as she screamed, “I got it! Mom, I did it!” Naima came rushing to her side and praised her daughter. Nufa felt accomplished. Adam grew jealous, and wanted to try again. The thoughts that rushed through his mind, “If Nufa could do it, I can too.” With that mentality, he tried again, and finally beat it too!
The reason why I came to visit Adam was because he’s the most severe asthmatic that I’ve seen. I wanted to see if it was even possible for him to perform this difficult exercise. Turns out, with a little bit of self-motivation and competitive spirit, he could.
We learned that even the severest of asthmatics can have fun with it (driven by desire to beat his sister). Naima was excited that not only can Aeris potentially give her the health information to prevent ER visits, but both Adam and Nufa could have a new game to play with.
This is what keeps me up at night and wakes me in the morning feeling excited. Seeing our work in the hands of real families, and witnessing their enjoyment right in front of my eyes is what drives me.
