Today marked the 10th year anniversary of the day I decided to quit med school and get IPST scholarship to come to the US. I remembered spent months after months weighting pros and cons of each choices. It turned out the the more people I talked to..the more info I gathered.. I got more confused and less decisive about each path. Yet, when it came to 13th October 2002, I got up, signed the contract, took a bus to DPST and dropped it off without telling anyone. I had absolutely nothing in my mind that day... I felt like just dropping off a regular mail at a post office..no joy..no regret..no concern.. All those months of hesitation seemed to be erased from my mind.
Did I made the right decision? Well, I don't know..and no one knows..and it doesn't matter anymore. The only useful question is what I'm going to do next.
But let's supposed.. I could go back in time right now.. that decision was probably be the same. The past ten years.. well I probably wanna take that to more extreme.. my life had been increasingly more adventurous over time..especially the last several months.. I wished I had started doing that from the first day I turned in that contract. Looking back in time, the most valuable thing I got from this 10+ year study abroad program was the security to take extreme risk..and to experiment with life. Let's think about that.. I was guaranteed a steady & decent income for 10 year... I was allowed to be almost anywhere on the planet.. I was practically allowed to pick up whatever skills I want (well... one fact I discovered.. and most young Thai scholars should know is that..once you're abroad, nobody really keeps track of what classes you take..or what areas of knowledge you try to be specialized in. Also, no one can really predict how the job market will look like in 10 years..so do work hard but go with your gut feeling..experiment on different things..). I could have, for examples, gone through a number of starting/failing/succeeding businesses or other enterprises..and become very seasoned by now!
I'm lucky enough to have happen to have this Siebel conference on this 10 year anniversary weekend. It was surreal to think about...having fancy dinner on cruise in the great Bay..chatting a billionaire investor over dinner..mingling with politicians, NY time columnists, music composers during cocktail parties..and by the way, I was invited here..and everything was paid for.
Well, I might have missed a bunch of stuff along the way..I have come pretty far..
@11.50 pm 13 Oct 2012, The Claremont Hotel, Berkeley, CA,USA
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