It's not everyday that I get to fulfill two childhood dreams. But March 21, 2014 was that day. I got my first choice program! My Match letter is on my refrigerator door. It's Sunday now and I still can't stop smiling when I think about it or open my refrigerator door.
I'm going to be a doctor and I'm going to be a New Yorker.
I have wanted to live in New York ever since I was a child. First it was because I loved the touristy places that I saw when I was little. But I got older I loved New York because of the diversity of people and experiences there. I have no illusions about my upcoming life in New York. I'm not going to be living in a nice apartment and probably not even in Manhattan. But I'm going to live and work in New York.
I have wanted to be a doctor ever since I was a child. Everyone who applied to medical school wrote that (and that they "want to help people"). But that doesn't make it less true for me. My grandfather was an ENT specialist and my grandmother was a Chinese medicine doctor. When I was about five or six years old I remember their former patients came to their apartment in China to thank them, or visit with them, or something. I don't really remember the details but I do remember that the patient were very grateful. I also remember accompanying them to the hospitals where they worked before retiring. We'd run into younger doctors who told me that my grandparents had trained them. My grandparents modeled for me the compassionate physician and educator that I want to be. They are always on my mind throughout medical school and particularly now as I am about to be a doctor. I know that they would be very proud of me and the path I have chosen.
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