Make your dream come true

Time gradually changes, and dreams change with the flow of time. Some dreams have come true, some are no longer with us, and some things we have carried in our hearts until now. Today I am a third-year student, and my thoughts and my dreams are very different from what they once were.

In grade 12, almost every student wonders what they will do later in life. What kind of person will they become? That question made me think long and hard. Ever since I was small, my parents had told me about the talented, brilliant people they knew, and I admired them greatly, so I thought I wanted to be like them too — to be remembered by others with respect and admiration, so that even after I died people would still remember me. And so I decided I would become a scientist and invent something useful for everyone. As I grew up that passion kept burning in me; I always loved to explore and to do things my own way.

Whenever I came across a maths problem, I always tried to find a different solution from the one already given, even if I often failed to solve it or had to take the long way round.

Then grade 12 arrived, the time to choose the road ahead, the fork in my life. Thinking about my dream, I felt that if I became a scientist in Vietnam I would have few chances to learn and to encounter the environment of other countries. While I was still uncertain about which school to choose and what my dream really was, I happened to overhear my parents talking about someone with late-stage cancer whom the hospital had sent home. I felt such pity, and I could not understand how there could be a disease with no cure. I began to think: "I will find a way to cure it" — and that too is science.

And so in grade 12, with only average academic results, I dared to sit the exam for general medicine, and I was truly anxious about it; I did not dare tell anyone apart from my close friends and my family. When people asked, all I dared say was that I did not know yet and that I was just trying to study. Exactly as I had predicted, I would fail; I knew I would fail, but I sat the exam anyway. I failed group B but passed group A — Economic Law in Ho Chi Minh City — and my parents advised me: "Going to study is fine too, Hằng. If you want to study medicine, you can revise for the exam again; you can study and revise at the same time."

So I decided to go to Sài Gòn to study, and on enrolment day, after I had already paid the fees at the bank and was about to hand in my papers, it struck me that I would certainly not study this subject and that my life could not go down this road — not to mention that it would cost my parents a great deal of money. So I called home to tell my family. My father said: "The school will let you defer and enrol next year, that's fine. I'll let you come home and revise for the exam; if you don't get in next year, you can go back and study there, that's fine too." But in reality I was not able to defer at all, and I asked my cousin to tell anyone who enquired that I had deferred, not that I had dropped out.

That year I revised for the exam at home, but wherever I went everyone asked, and everyone talked behind my back with a look of displeasure: "She got into university and still gave it up, who knows what on earth she wants" — that is what my aunt said. For the first month I did not dare leave the house; I was afraid of running into people, I truly felt awkward in front of everyone. Seeing my friends post photos of university life, travelling here and there, I felt sad and ashamed too, but not once did I regret my decision, because I always knew what I wanted and what I wanted my life to be like later on.

In the end, the following year I did achieve a better result. In 2015 the admissions system changed again: you could only register your choices at a single school. At the time I wanted to apply to the medical university in Thái Bình province, but only in the final days did I ask my parents' opinion: "Because my score is close to the cut-off for the medical university in Thái Bình, if the cut-off goes any higher I will fail to get into general medicine; my chances are only 50/50. If I apply to the medical university in Hải Phòng, I will certainly study general medicine." My father then asked: "There will definitely be no revising for another year, understood? If you don't get into general medicine, do you still want to study?"

And now I am a third-year student at Hải Phòng University of Medicine and Pharmacy. Even though I would have got in had I applied to Thái Bình Medical University, I still do not regret this decision of mine, because I am still walking the road I chose for myself.

Now my dream has changed a great deal too. It is no longer about doing something grand and being remembered for it. I always think that if I help others with all my heart, then even the smallest thing is a way for me to live in people's hearts; often they do not know it, but in my heart I feel truly at peace and happy. I have written, am writing and will go on writing my dream, and turning it into reality, even if it is not as easy to reach as I once thought.

Hoàng Thị Hằng Parish: Trại Lê – Can Lộc deanery Field: General Medicine Hải Phòng University of Medicine and Pharmacy