By: Pao Saykao
Life is full of challenges and I have had my fair share.
When I arrived in Australia in 1972, my initial challenge was not being able to speak English and I knew no one in Australia. But I was fortunate to live with a fabulous family - the Dexters who used to be ambassador to Laos. They have been the biggest influence in my life.
Despite all my difficulties I persisted at school and focused on my dream - to be a doctor - an impossible dream. Everyone around me thought that I was mad because I was not terribly bright at school. As a joke I came to be known as "Doc" during my high school years. My mum and dad Dexters never ceased to encourage me although they understood my challenges. My teachers tried hard to help me in my first year. I was allowed to give answers in my exams in English or French. This was a great help for me.
I developed the dream of being a doctor at the age of 12. The reason was simple - I wanted to know why and how 7 members of our family died in the 1930's from dysentery. I thought if there was a doctor, we could have prevented it. But becoming a doctor was not an easy quest for me. I had to overcome insurmountable obstacles.
My first challenge was my academic ability. I was just an average student and by the normal standard I was not a candidate for medicine. All the teachers and tutors were very supportive and always gave me encouragement but they knew what I was against.
My last school report states: " A most dedicated student and he has made the most of his time here at school. He has earned full marks for effort and his applications to his studies has been an example to his fellow. Pao should be confident that he has prepared himself the best he can. ... Our best wishes for the future go with him."
As you can see, there are plenty of encouragement for effort but my academic scores are just average - not good enough to get into medicine as I needed an average mark (out of 5 subjects) of 85% or higher from my final high school examination. But deep down, I had no doubt about the outcome.
When I was on holiday back in Laos during the christmas holiday of 1974, I received the notification from Australia that I had scored enough marks to qualify to do medicine. It seemed to be a miracle but I was not surprise about the result. So the first victory!
The second challenge: I had was to fight with the Lao Government and the Australian Government. The Lao Government wanted me to do medicine in Laos. If I want to stay in Australia, I could choose any course but medicine! But I was not too concern about this.
While the Australian Department of Education applied for me to study engineering, I applied myself to do medicine. I was accepted to both courses in Melbourne. My supervisor at the Education Department knew this but no one said any thing . So I was enrolled to the Monash Medical School. When the Lao Government found out, it was too late as the Pathet Lao was about to take over Laos. There was more urgent things in Laos than to deal with a Hmong student doing a course that he was not allow to do.
Then there was the change of government in Laos and the Lao students were forced to support the new regime. I made a declaration publically that I would not support the new government. As expected, my Passport was soon taken away by the Lao Embassy. So I was stateless for 5 years in Australia with no Passport. Furthermore, the Lao Embassy tried to put pressure on all the Lao student to support the new regime. If not, we were told that our scholarship would be terminated! To clarfify this issue, I wrote to the Australian Prime minister, Malcom Fraser, who gave the assurance that the Lao govermnent had no power to terminate any Australian scholarship. So I did not care any more about the pressure from the new government and I was allowed to continue my medical course uninterrupted.
Looking back, I was totally focused on medicine and nothing else and I was prepared to do any thing to get my way. Another motivation was probably I could not back down to lose face as I had told the whole school and every body knew that I wanted to be a doctor.
The third challenge was graduating - probably the hardest and most painful experience in my life. As history told, my father died suddenly 5 days before my final medical examinations. This was the exam to become a doctor. Picture the scene. Suddenly, my father was dead and I was just about to have the exam. I had two urgent things to deal with - the funeral (i.e. the crisis) and the exam - and both were equally important. What would I do? (and I wish that you would never have to be in this situation). All the family members awaited for my decision - just picture the setting - I was at that time the eldest member in our family in Australia. Priority needed to be drawn quickly. I sat back and looked at the situation and made 2 simple conclusions:
1. The Hmong has a saying "Tsiaj tuag kom noj nqaij, neeg tuag kom muab faus" - this means that when an animal died then eat the meat, when a person died, bury the body. Therefore my responsibility was to bury my father. And I could delegate that. So I rang Vue in Hobart. He dropped everything and flew to Melbourne to organise the funeral. Without Vue, I don't know what I could have done. And Vue handled the funeral brilliantly.
2. My exam: this is the future, this is the dream of my father for me to become a doctor. So my responsibility is for the future of the family in Australia and the fulfilment of my father's dream. May be he had to die for me to pass my exam. So I must pass the exam. But when to do the exam? I could do then or postpone to a later date? After a long consideration, I decided that there would be no postponing. I had to pass the exam then or later. And I was not prepared to wait for 2-3 more months. Life must go on and the future of the family depends on my passing of that exam. My father wanted me to pass so I cannot let him down. So I just have to get it over and done with. So I decided to sit for the exam which was on the same day as the starting of the funeral. I think that my father would be proud of this decision.
I could not remember much of the exam but I knew that I had done all I could have done then and I do not care about the outcome or what other people may have thought. I was satisfied with myself.
On the day the results came out, I had no doubt about the outcome. There was to be only one outcome - I knew it for a long time that I would pass. I have been a doctor long time (in my mind) before this day. I had no joy - probably sorrow and depressed. My father could have been there to celebrate the result. I knew that he was happy whenever he was. For me, I could feel a heavy weight on my shoulders and I knew that life had just begun. There are more challenges waiting for me but I have the confident in my heart that I can face any challenges in the future.
From my above experiences, I learned that:
1. Everything is possible if you believe totally that it is for you.
2. There are unseen forces (and people) that can help to make your dream come true if you do everything possible from you. Leave the rest to the unseen power. I still cannot explain how I get enough marks to do medicine but I had. I could not remember what I did in the final exam but I passed.
3. Focus totally on what you want and leave no room for retreat and you will succeed.
4. Everything we do in life has a purpose. And we need to prioritize all our activities based on its importance and urgency. Decide who is the right person for the right job. Then act. Usually the HOW will come.
(Extract from: My Memoir: Pao Saykao).