Sorry to de(re?)rail, but holy fucking shit. My entire extended family is warring because of me, and I didn't even know it. Some relation to me is a professor and refused to write me a recommendation for a program because he felt that a letter from a family member teaching in an unrelated field, no matter how well-published, wouldn't benefit me. I agreed completely and left it at that.
A few months later I get rejected from the program because I'm too "research oriented" and lacking leadership roles. This is understandable seeing as how they don't want people accepted to their program to go off and get a PhD instead, effectively wasting the spot. So I'm getting involved in the more clinical aspects of medicine while getting leadership positions in clubs.
A few months later and I'm in school. I get a call from my grandmother on my cell phone asking why my mom is so angry with her. It turns out my grandmother yelled at the guy who wouldn't write me a recommendation. My grandmother is a little protective and meddling, so this is to be expected. I told her that I wasn't mad at all with the guy, that I understood right away when he told me that his recommendation wouldn't help me at all, and that I loved him and his wife to death seeing as how they're both infinitely nice people. Problem resolved right?
Mother. Fucking. WRONG. It turns out the whole damn thing started when my MOTHER called this guy's wife (my mom's cousin) and told her never to talk to us again because I was emotionally devastated and my life was ruined by not getting in. Apparently my mother blames the whole thing on him not writing me a recommendation, rather than accepting that I was simply unsuited to the program. The worst part? I went out and filled the open recommendation with one from a professor who liked me, knew me in class, and who gave me an A for great effort and accomplishment in the course. Not only this, but the course I had this professor for was ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, much more important to my field than what my relative works in.
Tl;dr My extended family hasn't talked to each other in months because of me despite the fact that I have not been, or even felt slighted. It's a crying shame too, because we all recently took a vacation together and had a great time.