The American Dream

My grandparents raised me since I was in middle school. My grandfather ran a strict household where diligence and perseverance were highly valued. He was a South Korean Marine who earned rank as a Colonel, and fought along side American soldiers in the Korean War. After his service, he traveled to Oklahoma to learn about new artillery, and earned a certificate, which still hangs in my childhood home. He told me the minute he stepped onto American soil, he knew that he wanted become an American citizen. He knew that it would be the beginning of a tough and arduous journey, but America was a symbol of hope. He taught me the importance of hard work and a good work ethic, which are qualities I continue to carry today.

When I was younger, I was struggling to choose my career path and sought advice from my grandfather. With no hesitation, he said, “be a medical doctor.” He said that in times of war, there are very few survivors; those who are spared are those who have the skills to save others. He encouraged both my twin sister and I to become doctors. Throughout college, my goal was to “be somebody who can save people.” I majored in Biology in hopes of one day going to medical school, but I learn very quickly that I did not enjoy it. I still wanted to save people, but it clearly was not going to be in the same path that my sister ultimately chose. Remembering a Psychology class that I enjoyed in high school, I switched my major to Psychology in college. I finally found something I was very excited about . After college, I knew I wanted to pursue graduate work in Psychology and began in a Master’s program in Clinical Psychology at Pepperdine University. After completing the Master’s degree, I wanted to go deeper into the field that I loved and began the doctoral program at Loma Linda University. Initially, when I began graduate work in Psychology, I had the same goal of “saving others.” However, throughout my education and experiences, one of the biggest lessons that I have learned is that the ultimate goal is not for me to save others. The ultimate goal is to teach others to save themselves. I learned that our work as psychologists is to help people understand the extraordinariness of the human spirit and to realize that even under the most difficult of circumstances, people have the inner resilience and the strength to continue on. This is the true definition of a survivor. Psychologists have a special role in not only educating people about the skills in evidence-based treatments, but also giving them hope that they can manage their symptoms. It is the same feeling of hope that my grandfather came to see when he came to America for the first time.