In the movie "Catch me if you can", it started with the father telling a story about 2 mice falling into a milk jar. One gave up soon and drowned, while the other kept struggling. He fought so hard and for so long, he eventually turned milk into cheese and get out of the jar alive.I guess life is like that, even in the most desperate situation, you gotta keep fighting, cuz you have nothing to lose and you have everything to win.
It was another stormy day after a month of off-and-on thunderstroms, I went home early, get changed into semi-formal to meet with this big-shot doctor, talking about doing part-time research projects in his lab and earning a few more bucks to subsidize my sky-high tuition. My feeling was like the weather, muddy and uncertain, with a little bit of jittering from time to time.
It took me quite a while to get to his office, since the building was unmarked and the inside was a labyrinth. But I managed to get there 5 minutes before the meeting supposed to start.
The secretary met me at the door and told me that the boss would be ready right on time. While waiting in the hallway, I started to picture how this guy would be like, after all, he is a the head of a lab of 35 members, managing the biggest collection of leukamia tissue bank in US and has an NIH grant of $20+ million for the next 5 years. Will he be nice? Will there be a place for me in his lab? ......
"Hi, I am *****, you must be ********, nice to see you!" There he was, emerged right in front of me. I suddenly woke up from my thoughts and shook his extended hand a little bit awkwardly. He then led me into his office and what happened next will remain fresh in my memory as long as I breathe.
Even the most eccentric guy with the wildest guesses would not have a faintest clue of what his first question to me would be.
[ 相约加拿大:枫下论坛 rolia.net/forum ]
"How soon can you get US citizenship? The reason I ask is because I am thinking about sponsoring you to apply for Howard Hughes Medical Training Scholarship and I am not sure if it is open to Canadian citizens."
I was virtually stunned by his quetion. We are talking about THE Howard Hughes, one of the richest bastards on earth, who f**ked every film star in Hollywood, and donated most of his money to Howard Hughes Medical Inistitue (HHMI). Any prize/scholarship/grant from HHMI is the most sought after by biomedical researchers, not just for its generosity(yes the money is very good), but more for its reputation. A Howard Hughes award on one's resume can add at least $20k a year on your salary.
I mumbled something about not having thought about applying for green card, not sure if it is doable as a student and etc.. He cut it short by saying that he could help me to get green card as he just did to a student in his lab. As to my question of how difficult it is to get HH scholarhsip, he said 3 of his students applied in the past and all of them got approved.
"What is your career goal?" is his second question.
I recited the old shit of combining clinic work and researches. I specifically mentioned that I wanted to get into Radiology (mainly for its 9-5 work schedule, minimum patient contact and flexible lifestyle, and the starting salary of $300k is very attractive as well of course). At this point, he interrupted me by saying that his specialty is Oncology(Cancer), so I might have come to the wrong place. I tried to save my ass by saying that since the competition for the hot specialties are so intense, I may not get into the one I want anyway, I would also consider other specialties such as Oncology as well.
"Oh, don't worry about that, you will get into the specialty you want with a letter from me and my good friend Dr. ****, who is the best image analyst (Radiologist) in the nation." He quickly answered to my anxiety and promised to arrange my meeting with Dr. **** and the head of department of Radiology so that I can find out if my interests is more about image analysis and bioinformatics. As everyone knows how important to get connections in the professional world. It is more important to know someone then to know something! If these big-shots can help me, give me good references, there is very great chance I will get what I want eventually.
＜ r o l i a. n e t ＞
"I noticed that your English is very good, but, to become a good doctor, I would suggest you go through a program offered here which will help you to speak perfect English. Trust me, people would think less of you if you cannot speak good English as they do."
This I totally agree and am happy to learn there is a program there to help me to achieve that.
Then out of the blue, he just pop up a totally new subject.
"Would you consider of getting an English first name? With your present Chinese spelling name, people would always assume that you are one of those so-called "MDs" from China, who are horribly trained in Western medicine and have very bad reputations in the US medical society."
"You are not one of them, in fact, you are in a totally different ballpark, on a different level. But because of your name, you will have to spend the rest of your life fighting back those false assumptions about your education and credentials. You should get a nice English first name and you should always let people know that you got 38 in MCAT, went to one of the best medical schools in US and is NOT an "MD" trained in China."
"I know it is harsh. I bring up this issue because I am telling you behind the closed door, that discrimination is everywhere, even against foreign names. I got 1000+ application for 4 fellowships here, how do I choose the right candidates? I don't have time for every one of them, the first thing I look is their names. If a person has an obvious foreign name, which I cannot even pronounce, I would not bother to open his/her mail at all and he/she forever lost the chance of getting reviewed."
{ 枫下论坛 rolia.net/forum }
"I would be happy to be your mentor, and to help you to get there. And you, you must try every little thing to build up your strength and to fix your weakness. This is the system that you may not like that much, but don't try to change it overnight, you either follow its rules or get f**ked."
For so many years being abroad, I have never thought that I would need an English name, but now I am seriously considering of getting one. Even if I forget about his sounding advices and harsh comments, and I may not have problems to teach my collegues to pronounse my name correctly, I WILL always have a lot of troubles to achieve that with thousands of patients who may see me only once or twice in the their lives. And that will make a huge negative impact on my career.
After giving me a few of his recent papers and a promise to meet me again soon, he closed the conversation. I would not say the meeting was a pleasant one, but it was very open, honest and exciting. It left a lot for me to digest, to make the choices and to make the move. And it certainly opened a door to a whole new dimension which I have never experienced before. Just a day ago, I was still worrying about how to get more funds for my tuition, how to get into a specialty I want and how to get a green card and forever solve my student loan problems. Now suddenly all the great possibilities are out there, I just have to make the right choices, do my best, and carefully calculate every move I make.
I guess I am like the second mouse, who has been fighting so hard trying to survive, now finnaly can feel the milk is getting harder and I can catch a few sniff of fresh air. But I know, it still will be a very long way before the whole jar of milk become solidified, until then, I will have to keep fighting.
And the moral of the story: People used to say "Chance favors the mind which is prepared." I say "Chance favors the person who is f**ked." When he has nothing to lose, everything becomes an opportunity and sometimes, he can get out of the shit in a better shape than when he got in.
- just to share with you guys and wish everyone good luck on everything!
It was another stormy day after a month of off-and-on thunderstroms, I went home early, get changed into semi-formal to meet with this big-shot doctor, talking about doing part-time research projects in his lab and earning a few more bucks to subsidize my sky-high tuition. My feeling was like the weather, muddy and uncertain, with a little bit of jittering from time to time.
It took me quite a while to get to his office, since the building was unmarked and the inside was a labyrinth. But I managed to get there 5 minutes before the meeting supposed to start.
The secretary met me at the door and told me that the boss would be ready right on time. While waiting in the hallway, I started to picture how this guy would be like, after all, he is a the head of a lab of 35 members, managing the biggest collection of leukamia tissue bank in US and has an NIH grant of $20+ million for the next 5 years. Will he be nice? Will there be a place for me in his lab? ......
"Hi, I am *****, you must be ********, nice to see you!" There he was, emerged right in front of me. I suddenly woke up from my thoughts and shook his extended hand a little bit awkwardly. He then led me into his office and what happened next will remain fresh in my memory as long as I breathe.
Even the most eccentric guy with the wildest guesses would not have a faintest clue of what his first question to me would be.
[ 相约加拿大:枫下论坛 rolia.net/forum ]
"How soon can you get US citizenship? The reason I ask is because I am thinking about sponsoring you to apply for Howard Hughes Medical Training Scholarship and I am not sure if it is open to Canadian citizens."
I was virtually stunned by his quetion. We are talking about THE Howard Hughes, one of the richest bastards on earth, who f**ked every film star in Hollywood, and donated most of his money to Howard Hughes Medical Inistitue (HHMI). Any prize/scholarship/grant from HHMI is the most sought after by biomedical researchers, not just for its generosity(yes the money is very good), but more for its reputation. A Howard Hughes award on one's resume can add at least $20k a year on your salary.
I mumbled something about not having thought about applying for green card, not sure if it is doable as a student and etc.. He cut it short by saying that he could help me to get green card as he just did to a student in his lab. As to my question of how difficult it is to get HH scholarhsip, he said 3 of his students applied in the past and all of them got approved.
"What is your career goal?" is his second question.
I recited the old shit of combining clinic work and researches. I specifically mentioned that I wanted to get into Radiology (mainly for its 9-5 work schedule, minimum patient contact and flexible lifestyle, and the starting salary of $300k is very attractive as well of course). At this point, he interrupted me by saying that his specialty is Oncology(Cancer), so I might have come to the wrong place. I tried to save my ass by saying that since the competition for the hot specialties are so intense, I may not get into the one I want anyway, I would also consider other specialties such as Oncology as well.
"Oh, don't worry about that, you will get into the specialty you want with a letter from me and my good friend Dr. ****, who is the best image analyst (Radiologist) in the nation." He quickly answered to my anxiety and promised to arrange my meeting with Dr. **** and the head of department of Radiology so that I can find out if my interests is more about image analysis and bioinformatics. As everyone knows how important to get connections in the professional world. It is more important to know someone then to know something! If these big-shots can help me, give me good references, there is very great chance I will get what I want eventually.
＜ r o l i a. n e t ＞
"I noticed that your English is very good, but, to become a good doctor, I would suggest you go through a program offered here which will help you to speak perfect English. Trust me, people would think less of you if you cannot speak good English as they do."
This I totally agree and am happy to learn there is a program there to help me to achieve that.
Then out of the blue, he just pop up a totally new subject.
"Would you consider of getting an English first name? With your present Chinese spelling name, people would always assume that you are one of those so-called "MDs" from China, who are horribly trained in Western medicine and have very bad reputations in the US medical society."
"You are not one of them, in fact, you are in a totally different ballpark, on a different level. But because of your name, you will have to spend the rest of your life fighting back those false assumptions about your education and credentials. You should get a nice English first name and you should always let people know that you got 38 in MCAT, went to one of the best medical schools in US and is NOT an "MD" trained in China."
"I know it is harsh. I bring up this issue because I am telling you behind the closed door, that discrimination is everywhere, even against foreign names. I got 1000+ application for 4 fellowships here, how do I choose the right candidates? I don't have time for every one of them, the first thing I look is their names. If a person has an obvious foreign name, which I cannot even pronounce, I would not bother to open his/her mail at all and he/she forever lost the chance of getting reviewed."
{ 枫下论坛 rolia.net/forum }
"I would be happy to be your mentor, and to help you to get there. And you, you must try every little thing to build up your strength and to fix your weakness. This is the system that you may not like that much, but don't try to change it overnight, you either follow its rules or get f**ked."
For so many years being abroad, I have never thought that I would need an English name, but now I am seriously considering of getting one. Even if I forget about his sounding advices and harsh comments, and I may not have problems to teach my collegues to pronounse my name correctly, I WILL always have a lot of troubles to achieve that with thousands of patients who may see me only once or twice in the their lives. And that will make a huge negative impact on my career.
After giving me a few of his recent papers and a promise to meet me again soon, he closed the conversation. I would not say the meeting was a pleasant one, but it was very open, honest and exciting. It left a lot for me to digest, to make the choices and to make the move. And it certainly opened a door to a whole new dimension which I have never experienced before. Just a day ago, I was still worrying about how to get more funds for my tuition, how to get into a specialty I want and how to get a green card and forever solve my student loan problems. Now suddenly all the great possibilities are out there, I just have to make the right choices, do my best, and carefully calculate every move I make.
I guess I am like the second mouse, who has been fighting so hard trying to survive, now finnaly can feel the milk is getting harder and I can catch a few sniff of fresh air. But I know, it still will be a very long way before the whole jar of milk become solidified, until then, I will have to keep fighting.
And the moral of the story: People used to say "Chance favors the mind which is prepared." I say "Chance favors the person who is f**ked." When he has nothing to lose, everything becomes an opportunity and sometimes, he can get out of the shit in a better shape than when he got in.
- just to share with you guys and wish everyone good luck on everything!
