I found my acceptance letter this morning, still enclosed in a glass covered frame. Dear Mr Tsai: The members of the Admissions Committee and the faculty of the University of Illinois College of Medicine join me in extending an offer to you to be a member of the Class of 2002. I remember attaching the little fortune cookie message at the bottom of the letter. Good news of a long-awaited event will arrive soon. Chained to the top of the frame was a little silvery cherub ring that I used to wear...

I remember the day I received the letter in the mail. I looked at it, and I had no reaction. After trying to get into med school for 3 years, I had just about given up and was prepared to do "something else." So I held onto it for a full week and didn't tell a soul. I remember that period so clearly because things were changing so fast. I was scrambling to finish up my thesis for my Masters Degree, I was in the midst of a break-up with one of the few girls that had captured my heart, and I had this medical school acceptance letter in my hand. Well, obviously, I made my choices, accepted my fate, and here I am today - still in one piece.

As I write this, I find that, once again, things are changing very fast. I'm moving out of the room I've lived in for 4 years, I'm figuring out what I need to survive a trip to Europe, I'm planning how to relocate to California, and I'm hoping to see many of my friends before I leave Chicago. I look back at these years in medical school, and I hope I made all the right choices. I definitely feel like I still have some loose ends to tie up as well as some stories that have only just begun. I don't know how they'll end just yet...

I guess there will always be some regrets, some curiousity as to how things could've turned out if I had made different choices along the way. Life will always be about the trade-offs, the sacrifices, I suppose. Hopefully, though, we have the heart and commitment to choose the right path and believe in it. And to dream a little. But I must admit that a small part of me hopes that all these paths will somehow lead to the same place in the end...

One thing is for certain. There have been so many people and experiences that have touched my life. I would be nothing without them. So thank you, my friends and family, for making this entire journey worth it.

Today is the day I graduate. Unbelievable. It passed by so fast, almost like a blink of an eye. Another chapter is soon to begin.

("What?! Ho Chie was dating somebody? No way." Yes, I hear you whispering. The cherub ring belonged to her.)