Why Alex Karev appeals too much to me

I have read in some books that our brain cannot distinguish very well between reality and fiction (e.g., story telling). It means that if I tell you a story several times, chances are that you may remember in the future that you were there, especially if you keep telling the story; also, if you keep telling a self-enhanced story, say you want to protect your ego, chances are that you will believe that and delete from your brain all the evidences that may deny your self-made version of a real happening. And What? Why Am I mentioning this here? Why Alex Karev appeals too much to me?

My point here is that fictional character can help us learn more about us; when I look at all the fictional characters that appeals strongly to me, and make an honest self-reflection, they are mirrors of my weaknesses, like key and lock systems, or even strengths.

Alex Karev is a fictional character from Greys Anatomy: which is a series about medical doctors, their daily lives, especially at work. I have tried to watch this series for a while, but I have never succeed; in fact, I have never been patient to watch movies, in especial series, but lately, after signing up to Netflix®, I have started to watch more; since my favorite ones are no longer in Netflix (e.g., Dr House and Scorpion), I have decided to give it a try; I remember some episodes that I saw by chance when I was living in Italy, there was a TV in my apartment, and after more than one year without using it, I have decided to give it something to do! Occasionally, when I wanted to watch Scorpion, I saw some episodes of Greys Anatomy.

Alex Karev had a quite messed up life story: he was born from an addicted father (a “junkie”, as they call it), alcohol and drugs, his father abandoned them when he was quite young and he left his house quite young as well; I hope I have summarized properly the character. Notwithstanding all these setbacks, he managed to study medicine in a country where studying is not free and become a medical doctor, it is quite an achievement we have to say. A similar story appears in the movie “Homeless to Harvard”, which I like a lot, by the way.

The part that most resonates to me is when he has to face his father, after years; his father did not recognized him; the last time they saw each other, as he said, they were physically fighting, and as he said, his fear was to finish what he started when they last saw each other for last time. This episode is strong to me because I also had a difficult childhood, it could have been worse, of course, life can always be worse. I am the oldest brother, I have an order sister; we suffered a lot regarding the alcoholism of my father, all the violence at home; however, somehow, I managed to study, and finished my PhD recently. I did not leave my house life as Alex did, but something are similar: once my father, under alcohol, have tried to struggle me; I managed to escape, and when I was up to hit back, I gave up and ran away (I said to myself “it is not worth it”, at least this what I can remember), I called the police for him; from that time on, he started to respect me.

Life can be quite challenging to all of us, but for some, it can be quite challenging. By no means I want to say I am a poor soul, because I am not; the last personal survey I did, one person pointed that I am a “happy person”. Nonetheless, sometimes, if you talk about it, you can help yourself and others; I loved to read about how people managed to overcome all the difficulties of life, and still loves it! My aim here is partially talk about it, as I am doing now in an auto-biography, and maybe help somebody else.

Researchers show that we must handle some internal issues, if we want to understand what makes us ‘us’. Paulo Coelho wrote “Veronika Decides to Die”, according to his own words, based on his own experience in a physiological institution, and he promised to himself he would write about it, but after his relatives died, he did not want to hurt them, since they were the ones that admitted him; he found, according to him, an opportunity when he heard the story of Veronika, and made use of that to tell his story, and still keeping his promise. I have a similar aim, I want to tell my story, but I do worry about the damages I may call bring back from the past.