My story starts back in Germany where I was born to two young parents while they were in med school. They both grew up very poor and managed to study abroad thanks to scholarships from the Cameroonian government. When they weren’t busy studying, they worked retail jobs during their breaks to make ends meet and send money back home. All along, they had a goal to become medical doctors in the USA because this would set up our family for a much better life.
When I came along, it became very difficult to make things work so I moved to Cameroon when I was 3. I was raised by my aunt Melanie and uncle Henry and they loved me as their own. I grew up very rich in everything except money. My parents completed their studies and made it to America around 2000. So, everything was going according to plan.
Or was it? When they got here, they didn’t know anyone, had to redo their board licensing exams in order to apply for residency and work multiple jobs to support our family back home. Worst still, I kept getting rejected each time I applied for a visa to the United States. Reuniting with my parents seemingly wasn’t a strong enough reason for me to get approved for a Visa
Cameroon is bilingual and we spoke French at home. In order to signal my intent to move to the US, I switched to an English-speaking school. After that, I had to rank in the top 3 of my class each year to show potential on my applications. I can count on one hand the amount of times I missed the honor roll between the ages of 5 and 12. That kind of pressure forced me to mature at a young age, but it also gave me a lot of confidence to set goals and achieve. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to secure a visa.
When I was 9 years-old, we decided that I would move away from my family and friends to attend SAHECO which was over 7 hours away from home. SAHECO is a well renowned all-boys catholic school that only accepts the best students from the whole country. We were allowed a single visit each semester from family. No phones. Rice and beans every day. We were separated into houses and competed for different prizes. You could only communicate with family occasionally and by letter- kind of like at Hogwarts but without the fun of wizardry. There was a lot of bullying because the older students who were as old as 19 or 20 took advantage of the younger ones. Nonetheless, I found a way to excel but I kept getting rejected for the visa each summer.
In 2008, when I was 12 there was a lot of political unrest in Cameroon as President Biya amended the constitution to remove term limits due to his impending removal from office after almost 30 years of reign. Violent riots broke throughout the nation. Our school was a target because some students were related to high ranking government officials. Armed rebels raided SAHECO’s boarding school campus while class was in session. I still remember the loud bang as one of the masked rebels broke through the classroom door and started waving his automatic rifle at us. We immediately scattered like ants in all directions and escaped by breaking through the glass windows. Our school was somewhat isolated and surrounded by forestry, so I ran with some of my friends and hid in the bushes for over 8 hours till we were sure the raid was complete. Water was temporarily cut off to our school, and for the rest of the semester we all lived with the constant anxiety and fear that such a scenario would occur again.
After returning home, I told my aunt I couldn’t return to SAHECO. I decided to switch back to a Francophone school and restart my secondary education since applying for a visa again seemed futile. Then something crazy happened. Against all odds my mom won the green card lottery through the immigrant diversity program. Suddenly, I found myself alone on a big plane headed to the Dulles airport in Washington DC to chase the American dream in July of 2008.
The first few months were tough. I missed my family back in Cameroon a lot, the newfound abundance in America was unnerving, the Maryland cold was brutal, and people spoke English at what seemed to be 2x speed, but I slowly found my feet.
We eventually settled in Dallas and as I began to think about my future, I decided that I wanted to pursue medicine. I have the vision of one day returning home and opening a medical center so that I can improve my community. My parents’ careers also inspired me greatly even though they begged me to pursue computer science instead. But my desire to pursue medicine was already solidified. I had watched a lot of people die from what I now know to be preventable diseases such as malaria, cholera, dysentery and the HIV epidemic, which was ravaging through Africa when I was young.
These experiences gave me the motivation to do whatever it took to get into medical school. Now I attend the Long School of Medicine in San Antonio and I am living my American Dream. These same desires keep me driven when the going gets tough. I know that hard work, proactive planning and a little bit of luck in the mix can go a long way to making a difference and positive impact in the lives of many. That’s exactly what I intend to do for my patients and my community back home in the future.
Story: John Kouam
