There is something to be said for being in the right place and time.
There's a phrase my mom says: 这个是天规定的. The translation is basically, "This is mandated by heaven." The concept of a "heavenly mandate" is an ancient one. Heaven decrees that certain things are meant to be, and certain events happen at certain times for a reason. How we interpret that and what we do with it is up to us. It's not exactly fate or destiny, but is along a similar line of thought.
I did my pediatric rheumatology rotation last month and pretty much loved it. Towards the end of the month, one of the rheumatologists told me that he received an email with an application for a resident to apply for an award to attend this year's peds rheum conferences essentially for free! How could I pass this opportunity up? Imagine my joy at receiving the award, and I'm off to Orlando for the conferences next week!
If I didn't do that rotation that month, and if I hadn't heard about the application, I wouldn't have the opportunity to attend these conferences. Right place and right time. On a larger scale, matching in California for residency is probably meant to be (though it doesn't always feel like it). And perhaps dating and finding "the one" (out of many possible "ones") is a matter of time and place as well.
That's not to say that this concept means I should be passive about things, like destiny or fate. But rather, when the right time and place produce an opportunity, I must not let it slip. For who knows where it could lead?
1 comment:
Congrats on being able to attend the conference. You can network with a lot of the participants.
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