The Past Prepares You For The Future

Dominica

“THE SHACKS” at Ross University

By the end of only 4.5 years of college I had earned a Bachelor of Science in Physiology, a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish (Linguistics concentration) and a Minor in Chemistry. I did not have much guidance as to how to go about successfully and efficiently applying to Medical School, but since that was my goal since the age of three, nothing was going to get in my way. After applying to only a few schools in the USA (a reflection of my lack of awareness of how to cast a wider net as well as the financial limitations since applying to medical schools was expensive) and making it to interviews, I found myself unsuccessful with admissions, despite a very strong GPA and extracurricular activities. I was informed by a family friend who is a practicing physician and an alumnus of the school, about a medical school based on the East coast that had the didactic training in the Caribbean and the clinical rotations back in the US.

I was discouraged by my ex boyfriend and high school sweetheart (he was also applying to medical schools and we’d remained friends) about applying. He said that that it would be hard to match into a residency spot if I go to this school because it is considered to be somewhat of a “foreign medical school”. I told him that my parents brought me to this country so that I could accomplish my goal of being a doctor, but I am not from this country and if I have to leave the country to get what I need then that is exactly what I will do, and US residency programs would be lucky to have me.

My family was nervous about me leaving because my immigration status was at that time very tenuous and the government was looking for any excuse to not grant citizenship. Actually, even though my immigration lawyer helped me with special travel documents so I had permission to be out of the country for that time, when I tried to get my citizenship after returning to the States, they sited the fact that I did that as grounds for why my application would be delayed by another 3 years. I remember looking the agent in the eye during my interview and telling him that this country would have preferred that I sat on my butt and didn’t do anything rather than leave for 16 months and become a physician. He had nothing to say to that.

I applied to that school and was accepted. I was also awarded the Eliza Ann Grier full tuition and book scholarship. I was one of the last people to receive that award before it was discontinued. I am ashamed to admit that it was not until years later that I thought of truly looking into the namesake of that scholarship.

Eliza Ann Grier changed the face of medicine. She was an emancipated slave who faced racial discrimination and financial hardship while pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor. To pay for her medical education, she alternated every year of study with a year of picking cotton. It took her seven years to graduate, but in 1898 she became the first African American woman licensed to practice medicine in the state of Georgia. I found it poetic that she was an Obstetrician Gynecologist, just like me.

I digress... the point is that even back in my early 20s, I had the clarity of vision and the wisdom to know when I wasn’t getting what I needed from this country and the courage to leave it to accomplish my goals.

I met my husband a few months before leaving for Dominica. After less than three months together, we got engaged, right before I left. We spent only one semester apart before he followed me down there and spent my last 3 semesters there with me, as a supportive partner and manager of our book store. We both adapted to the limitations of living on a small island and we thrived. All we needed was each other and our resilience and flexibility.

I think about the 16mo I spent on that island, leaving to the unknown with almost no money and no one there to help me. I think about all I adapted to while also studying the hardest I had ever studied in my life (and that is saying a lot). I think of that time on the island of Dominica and I know that there is nothing that New Zealand could throw at Randy and me that we won’t be able to adjust to or turn into a success.

The past has truly prepared me for the future.

And, by the way, I graduated from medical school with Honors, and had no trouble matching into a residency program in the US.