Dedicated with love to my mom, Sujata Owens. Thanks for all the extremely entertaining homeopathic moments, Mom-I am so fortunate, really.

Why don’t you go to the doctor? A rosy-cheeked third grader asked me.

“Because my mom’s a homeopath,” I responded calmly.

“What’s that?” she asked quizzically.

That was a situation I found myself in constantly while I was growing up. Don’t get me wrong. I am only seventeen now, and I realize I still have lot of growing up to do. At that time, however, homeopathy was in its preliminary stages of being established in the Midwest. Periodically I would find myself involved in conversations with people of all ages that would go something like this:

“So what do your parents do for a living?”

“My dad’s an engineer and my mom’s a homeopath.”

“A homopath?” the person would ask, looking at me as though I was crazy.

“No, a homeopath. It’s a type of natural medicine.”

“Oh, like herbs and berries and stuff,” the person would respond almost mockingly, while thinking that he was the knowledgeable one.

My answer at that point depended greatly on my mood. If I was in a patient mood, I would proceed to give a more detailed explanation of homeopathy. If I wasn’t I usually looked back at them and smiled, “Something like that.” All the while I would be thinking in my head, “And he thinks I’M the crazy one!”

Being raised by a homeopath has influenced me greatly. I have a different view of the medicinal world than most patients of modern medicine. To them, each affliction has some pill, tablet, antibiotic, or medicine that can stop their symptoms. Waking up with a rash means a trip to the pharmacy for some over-the-counter drug. A sore throat means time for some pink syrup. I’m aware that modern medicine does not cure; it suppresses. I have seen friends take antibiotics for one symptom, and then break out in one, two, or ten other symptoms as a result. It seems to me that people are forgetting that each of us has a body that naturally heals itself. An imbalance in our body that causes a cold is our body’s way of telling us we need to slow down and rejuvenate. It doesn’t mean that our body wants some drugs (i.e. antibiotics). The interesting thing is that I don’t remember ever specifically learning this. It was something that was just integrated into the way I thought as a result of being raised by a homeopath.

This way of thinking “as a homeopath” became my way of thinking. When my friends and I would be outside playing and one of them would get a big bump on their head, I would examine their bump and tell them that they should take Arnica 30C. When I would go with my aunt to pick up one of her prescriptions, I would urge her to read the “Caution” label that stated all of the undesirable effects that could result from taking the prescribed drug.

My mom’s passion for homeopathy definitely influenced me. I remember seeing many copies of books and magazines entitled things such as Similliumum or The American Homeopath laying around the house. Homeopathy was by no means a 9-to-5 job for my mom. When we would rent movies and sit as a family watching them, my mom would yell out the names of remedies that the characters “definitely needed.” I would laugh and kid around with her for being so obsessed with homeopathy, but I never forgot her analysis.

I would be flat out lying if I claimed that I never wished my mom was just a regular old doctor. I got tired of being singled out because of my mom’s occupation. I didn’t want to explain to everyone what I knew about homeopathy. Usually, though, I did, just because I knew how well homeopathy worked. When I was in fifth or sixth grade my mom treated a client who had been unable to conceive and had been trying to have a child for many years. She came to see my mom and, within a month, she was pregnant. I have seen the miracles of homeopathy such as this one many times, and it was circumstances like this that made me glad my mom was a homeopath.

In the end, I kept on explaining about homeopathy because I had so much faith in it. I have no idea where my life path will take me. Who knows, may be I will follow in my mom’s footsteps and become a homeopath. Wouldn’t she just love that!

About the writer: Jayanti Owens, senior at Swarthmore College, PA, is now 21. She wrote this article when she was a senior in Northfield High School. This ambitious young woman has too many accomplishments to write about. Few outstanding ones to mention here are Rhodes Scholar Finalist, Truman Finalist and a Mellon-Mays Scholar. She continues to use homeopathy as her primary health care system and proudly proclaims that she is one of the few in US who never had to take any antibiotics.