Where You End Up

"It doesn't matter where you start out (college)-what matters is where you end up (professional school)," said my classmate. I hadn't seen him in 40 years.

He added: "my brother-in-law graduated from TEMPLE medical school." He started to say a "real" medical school, but stopped at the "re." I was furious but held my temper, rather than ruin a perfectly nice dinner at a yacht club. It was deliberate and disgusting. He was telling me, as the wife in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou told her convict husband about her boyfriend-"he's bona fide" and YOU are not (because I graduated from an International medical school).

In the last four years, I have had four different bosses. I consider myself a survivor. I have seen five US medical school graduates fired, almost fired (and left), or saved (ironically, by me) from being fired. Consequently, having a US medical degree, as Shania Twain so eloquently said: "that don't impress me much."

We went around the table and talked about what we had accomplished. Everyone had a story about how he avoided going to Vietnam. I was in the USAR and trained as a medic, but was not activated (I would have gone). I made up for this by being activated as a physician to Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm. I saw no reason to mention the military (or, what I had accomplished) when my turn came. Some were modest, others not. One spoke for 10 minutes-he sounded like he was Donald Trump, however, I knew from a Google search that he was a convicted felon for destroying mangroves in Florida, so that he could develop land and make it more profitable, in spite of destroying an entire ecosystem. It was hard to know the truth underlying the embellishments and omissions. One of the superstars in my class was on his third wife-he said: "all are great ladies; I've had one per decade." I made a point of telling them that my best achievement was marrying my one and only wife Sue. The superstar said: "I saw that coming." As we were leaving I told the superstar "I'm proud of what you have done in the legal profession." He replied: "I'm not done yet."

I sent an e-mail thanking all my classmates for a nice time. I added: "I would argue it doesn't matter where you end up-what you learn along the way is what counts" (e.g., treating people like human beings, having compassion for Frank, the person who watered the plants and was dying from pancreatic cancer ( I was the only one in my office who made time to talk to him), and not rushing to judgment re. where a person obtained a degree. I told them: "let's see what the next five years brings, because I'm not done yet either."