Vinnie Grewal never considered himself to be a creative writer. In fact, he barely read fiction books at all.
But in the fall of 2020, a friend lent him John Green’s “The Fault in our Stars,” which in turn sparked a new passion.
Vinnie Grewel, a biology senior on a premed route, poses with his recently published debut novel, “The Final Catharsis,” available on Amazon.com. Grewel said he credits a UToledo class and faculty for helping him achieve this goal.
Two years later, Grewal published his first novel, “The Final Catharsis.”
The biology senior on a premed route said he always felt like his career path was predisposed.
“My parents always wanted me to be a doctor, so I decided to go down this track,” Grewal said. “But when I got to college, I took time to think about it and I realized, I want to do it for myself.”
Grewal, who’s from Williamston, Michigan, said the turning point in his fascination of the medical world occurred while he was on a trip to California, during which he shadowed a cardiologist.
“I fell in love with it there,” he said. “It was a great environment, she was so passionate about visiting patients, and I love how she taught the EKGs and echocardiograms. Everything about the heart is so fascinating to me.”
During this time, Grewal also undertook another journey of self-discovery: an adventure in writing a novel that would take 20 months to complete.
“My whole life has been very science oriented,” he said. “My friend gave me John Green’s book and I read it all in one day. That Saturday I was so engrossed in the story, so captivated.
“It really had such a big impact on me and made me so curious of other art forms. I started engrossing myself in any kind of subjective experience that makes people feel something.”
Ideas of love, loss, guilt and fear of death swirled around his mind for months, and when Grewal took a philosophy class at UToledo, he said he began to find some order in the chaos of his existentialism.
The professors in the department of philosophy and religious studies helped Grewal throughout his journey.
“They really opened my mind to a lot of different ideas of thinking way of viewing the world and learning.”
The content he learned resonated with him so much that Grewal decided to add a minor in philosophy to his degree.
When it came time to begin writing the novel, Grewal didn’t know where to start. An honors multicultural literature class in Spring 2021, offered by the Jesup Scott Honors College, gave him the confidence he needed to begin the writing process.
“In that class, we had to write like 500-word essays every week,” he said. “That class really taught me, ‘Oh, I can write consistently and like a lot all at once,’ so that really prepared me for that kind of writing.”
Grewal also credits his English composition and science classes with aiding the more technical and critical thinking aspects of writing.
The day after he finished classes in the spring of 2021, Grewal got to work.
His goal? To use writing as an outlet to explore ideas of pain, loss and the power of art to heal.
“I wrote a chapter a day the first three days,” Grewal said. “I realized, this could be a story instead of just writing out my thoughts and feelings. The cathartic release of writing really made me consistent, and I enjoyed telling a story with a narrative I kept building on itself.”
Eighty days later, Grewal looked at the finished draft of his novel, his sense of pride was unmistakable; however, he still had months of editing and formatting ahead of him.
“It’s a lot of steps,” he said. “Even though writing seems like the main part, and it is the most fun part, it actually took the shortest compared to everything else.”
The hard work was worth it when Grewal held “The Final Catharsis” in his hands for the first time.
“When I felt the weight of it, saw the cover and touched the book, I was just in awe,” Grewal said. “I felt so emotional, I almost wanted to cry. It was just like this is everything I’ve poured into myself, my life poured into something meaningful.”
Grewal self-published his book on Amazon in January. He graduates in May and his focus is on medical school, but he has already started writing his second novel.
His two biggest passions may seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum, but Grewal plans to continue to make space for both in his life.
“These are very contradictory lifestyles sometimes, but I think that the subjective arts and humanities work with the objective sciences as well,” he said. “My philosophy classes are very subjective, but I can use that mindset during my science classes to have an open mind to think of problems differently. I can use the objective sciences to help solve philosophy, logic problems, and I think they can blend together as well.
“I think that’s the beauty of learning. I think everything builds upon each other.”
