{"seoTitle":"Who Will You Be? — A Short Story | Pemba Umoja Stories","seoDescription":"A short story about a father’s expectations, a daughter’s long-delayed courage, and the years it can take to become who you were meant to be. By Pemba Umoja.","keywords":"short story about family expectations, father and daughter short story, story about following your dream, literary short stories for adults, story about courage, Pemba Umoja","content":{"p1":"The father leaned back at dinner, watching his daughter carefully. His eyes didn’t stray from her face.","p2":"“Congratulations on getting into medical school,” he said.","p3":"“Medical school? But I didn’t apply to medical school, father.”","p4":"“I know. I applied for you, and you got in. Cairo Medical School. You start in three weeks.”","p5":"“But I don’t want to go to medical school, father.”","p6":"The father stood up forcefully and placed his large hands on the table.","p7":"“You got into medical school. You’ll go to medical school.”","p8":"His eyes never strayed from her face.","p9":"She looked down.","p10":"“Yes, father.”","p11":"And she went for two weeks, and then came home.","p12":"“I can’t, father. I just can’t.”","p13":"Her father stared at her sharply.","p14":"“Then you’ll become an engineer.”","p15":"She looked down again.","p16":"“Yes, father.”","p17":"And she became an engineer, an electrical engineer with a master’s degree.","p18":"And twenty years passed, one divorce, and two children later she called her father.","p19":"“I can’t, father. I just can’t.”","p20":"Her father couldn’t stare at her across an ocean over the phone.","p21":"“I want to become a cook, father.”","p22":"“What? And sell sandwiches,” he exclaimed. “What am I supposed to tell people?”","p23":"“I don’t care what you tell people,” she answered, surprised by her own words as they came out of her mouth.","p24":"“Then I disown you,” he declared as he hung up.","p25":"And become a cook she did, and a restaurateur, and a maker of the best hummus and homemade pita bread in that old resort town.","p26":"A few years later they talked.","p27":"Her father listened.","p28":"He smiled.","p29":"He told people. He told everyone what his daughter did.","p30":"He told so many people, they often told him to go away.","p31":"And despite it all, she became who she was always meant to be.","p32":"And he became the father he should have always been."}}