悠遊太平洋西南嶼

* A mail from a friend inspired me to some degree, arousing my original dreams now misplaced deeply in my heart.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

(i think the last time I've written sth like this was about 3 and a
half years ago, when I first arrived at boston. Here are some updates
since then)

10:30am, Red Sea, Egypt, July 24, 1998. I was there, forty feet below
sea level, swimming excitedly beside a school of surgeonfish. "If I
were to die tomorrow it would be just fine," I thought, watching a
stingray roll beneath me.

I was then a junior clerk-to-be at the best medical school in Taiwan
with no passion to be either a physician or a scientist. Not having
been inspired by my father's dedication to hepatology research, I had
planned to become a part-time physician and part-time underwater
photographer for National Geographic. Then, I discovered computational
biology.

---

That was the beginning of my statement of purpose for applying grad
schools 3 years ago. And here I am now, starting my 3rd year at
harvard, and enjoying my every single moment. I am not doing
computational/systems biology per se, yet taking a multidisciplinary
approach to study some interesting questions regarding the developing
nervous system. As our program head always says, the most important
thing for a grad student, is to "identify a lab which has the science
that excites you, and one that you enjoy going to everyday". I am
fortunate to have discovered such lab.

I am often asked if I were to go back to taiwan after I graduate. As
much as I consider Taiwan to be my home country, I am a lot happier
here. It doesn't mean that I didn't have fun through my med school
years. I had -- actually, maybe too much fun. I have accomplished a
lot. Putting catheters into umbilical veins of a premature infant at
4am. Motivating the med school orchestra to perform at the National
concert hall. Giving a speech in front of the school officials and
people from other student organization how I had always wished the med
school were a different place, and how could we as student act as a
whole to change it. Midnight at the beach. Camp at 10,000 feet. Scuba
diving in the colorful tropical waters. Coffee in the enchanted town
of Lubeck in northern germany. Robert and Clara Schumann's graveyard
at Bonn. The Niles and the pyramids. The rolling hills of Hokaido.
Hanging on to a large tree trunk in the middle of turbulent water
waiting for rescue in the heart of the rain forest in Malaysia. Med
school years for me had really been a fun ride. I could simply go on
and have an easy life -- I am as bright as any of my fellow
classmates, and with all the best resources a young physician could
possibly have on the beautiful island.

Yet I never had that passion towards my professional career as I had
for a variety of activities. And often I felt there was nothing left
for me to prove. Two years ago, in a dinner with the President of the
Academica Sinica, who was a Nobel Laureate, and the chair of HP
Taiwan, I told them I was unlikely to go back to taiwan since "not
even becoming the president of the university hospital would appeal to
me"

Coming to the US and got exposed to some exciting research changed all
this. I am confident that with some luck I will be able to achieve and
compete at the highest level. I do understand that unfortunate things
could happen and doing research is much riskier than practicing
medicine, yet this is what I have passion for and I am willing to take
the risk and face any challenge that maybe in front of me.

I wanted to become a taxi driver when I was 6 (i liked cars a lot).
And IBM CEO when I was 13, a mathematician when 16. Now I want to
become a research scientist -- and happily trying my best to reach
that goal.

Thanks for reading such a long e-mail:). Keep in touch and drop me a
note if you are visiting Cambridge/Boston!