(ROMEO KENMEGNE Batch 2015 Roll No. 6 Cameroonian)
My name is DR. ROMEO KENMEGNE, Cameroonian citizen, Batch 2015 of the Faculty of International Studies, Jiujiang University. Medical Bachelor and Bachelor of Surgery, Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and at any time in life, one must follow his dream”. In April 2015, I decided to leave my homeland for a destination that was unfamiliar to me if so in the history books. My departure had only one goal: to follow my dream of becoming a doctor.
This is how China, Jiujiang University opened its doors to me and decided to adopt me.
Like the start of any adventure, nothing has been easy for me. I had my most difficult moments of my life during my debut in China; that was due to my naivety and my lack of experience. Fortunately for me Jiujiang University had placed at the head of the FIS the right men in the right places. At this date, I can proudly testify that as a student, I had achieved my goals. Just as I just mentioned, it hasn’t been easy for me but so far, most of my biggest challenges have been overcome.
Short review: “The road to my dream”.
When I arrived here in china late April 2015, I was subject to so many challenges, dues to the fact that I was new in the environment; the stress was one of those challenges.
I reasonably took the decision to invest myself in physical activities just to relax myself and cut down the level of stress that was taking over my daily life. I started and I was enjoying it every day and passionately. Unfortunately, 2 months later (in July), I got an injury which appeared to me as an irreversible terrible situation. I had to stay in the hospital for several weeks; I had operation 3 times for the same injury.
The most Interesting thing about this is that I came across someone (Dr. Xu Gang) who was my doctor and later he decided to take me along with him to the hospital and became my teacher.
At the beginning when he made this suggestion to me, I remembered the language challenge I had when communicating with him in the hospital during my hospitalization period. I resisted just because I couldn’t express myself in Chinese language, so I rejected his offer. But he didn’t give up on me and kept insisting and encouraging me by saying: “Romeo, come and follow me, it will improve your Chinese”. After several discussions with him, I remembered that Napolean HILL said: “don’t wait, the time will never be just right” I decided to give a try and therefore I started following him.
I can assure you that the beginning wasn’t easy at all but I didn’t give up, Edison failed 10,000 times before he made the electric light, so I won’t be discouraged if I fail few times: I told myself this line. I had to make lot of efforts, inviting Chinese friends to share some moments together, following Chinese tutorials online, and buying Chinese language books… just to practice my Chinese in order to be able to catch up with my teachers when they communicate in the operating theater.
Through this Doctor, I had a lot of encounters with special people in the field of orthopedic surgery. They decided to train me free of charge, feed me and adopt me, gave me all the privileges which were necessary for me to feel more comfortable than anyone else. They gave me the love for the orthopedic surgery, helped me socialize myself with the Chinese people and changed my story including my life style. Effectively when I started following these wonderful group, my Chinese language improved tremendously and it became so easy for me to integrate the system. I passed my HSK level 5 and I am pretty sure that if I didn’t take this decision to follow them, this could have been so hard for me.
In this particular chapter of my life, I will like to thank a special person who has the same position as my parent to me through his love and care for me. He taught me every single technique of the orthopedic surgery from the basics to the specialized techniques and this without any resentment.
Thank you for showing me the way to my dream dear Dr. Zhu Shu Lang, you told me: “Romeo, you have to read your book for the theory and I will show you the techniques” and you never failed to take me along with you anytime you have to do an operation. You have been so special to me and I will forever remember you.
This year 2021, I have completed my clinical training and I am going directly for my specialization in Orthopedic Surgery: this is so wonderful to me because I was introduced to the orthopedic surgery because of a fracture I had in my early days in China. This is so amazing and I will keep it as a special point of my professional life orientation.
The Moral Lesson here is that: “Everything Happen in life for a reason, and in every situation, there is one positive and one negative side; we should learn how to abandon the negative side and choose the positive side”, because the mind acts like an enemy for those who do not control it. The negative mind you adopt when you are in some situations will let you fail in 90% of cases. Albert Einstein: “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”.
Academically:
I graduated and was awarded the prize of “distinguished student from 2015 to 2020” with the appreciations of the faculty members and the teaching staff both from the faculty and the teaching hospital of Jiujiang University Affiliated Hospital.
I was nominated and selected as one of “Jiujiang University’s Figure/personage of the year 2020”; this is like one of my greatest academic achievement I ever had.
I was 5 times over 6 awarded with the provincial government scholarship of Jiangxi Government.
At the end of the year 2021, with the recommendation of my Faculty and University, I got my admission to continue my specialization in orthopedic surgery at Sichuan University -West China Hospital which is the Second Best Hospital in China: This is for me a wonderful opportunity which didn’t only amaze me, but had also amazed my entire Family and I plan to make a good use of it. I think I will valuably represent my mother University of Origin (Jiujiang University) at West China Hospital and later in Future wherever I go.
I dream and I believe in the beauty of my dreams and Abdul KALAM said: “you have to dream before your dream comes true” in the other hand George SHEEHAN tells us that “Success means having the courage; the determination and the will to become to person you believe you were meant to be.” So I have a dream.
Extracurricular Activities:
I was one of the founders and member of the FIS volunteer team in which I was the team captain for 5 years. This team has been able to accomplish wonderful activities such as: seminars on the environment protection, education of people around the Yangtze River on how to protect aquatic species (endangered species) like porpoise. We also offered some English classes to some primary schools around Jiujiang city etc... All these contributed to introduce and illuminate the image of the international students of Jiujiang University.
I was 2 times awarded with the prize of excellent Chinese language student during the Jiangxi provincial Chinese language competition.
I won the prize of excellent performance of poem reading of the Jiangxi government in year 2019.
As a class monitor from 2016 to 2021, I had learn and gained an experience in the management of “mass/group” of different people of different nationalities. This task hasn’t been easy and I thank all my fellow monitors and classmates for their support in this tough task. You all showed your cooperation and proved to me that together we can. I thank you very much for being there for me.
I would like on behalf of all FIS students, sincerely thank the administrative staff of the FIS for their professionalism, their perfect supervision and their sense of tolerance and di ligence that they haven’t ceased to testify to us. We really appreciate it.
Concerning the difficulties of life, the past two years have been marked by a fatal and horrific episode of the covid19 pandemic. I would like to testify here that we have seen an effective demonstration of strength of leadership by excellence that qualifies China especially during this time when we were all facing the pandemic. I have learned a very big lesson, and we can give credit to China: China is a perfect example to absolutely follow in the world. Very sincerely, I assure you I owe China and its leadership a respect.
Regarding Jiujiang University, we are very grateful to you for your daily supervision and follow-up.
I can remember that every year and at least once a semester, we usually receive a visit from the vice-president of Jiujiang University, Professor YANG YAOFANG who sometimes took his precious time to visit us in our dormitories and especially with lots of gifts during Chinese New Year.
To continue and this will be the end, I would like on my behalf and those of my comrades here present or those who remained in their respective countries, thank the University of Jiujiang for all their support brought during the recent pandemic episode. We received free food from the university on a daily basis throughout the pandemic. This action will remain forever etched in our memories. You had proven that you are very responsible parents.
On this day, we are to leave the university to start our profession in our respective countries, quite simply because life is a series of stages to be followed and one after the other, and therefore we are obliged to leave. I can reassure you that we are leaving China but China will not leave our hearts.
We wish long life and more prosperity to this great nation, the country of the great Chairman Mao.
Thank You.
Dr Romeo Kenmegne
Email: romeo_kenmegne@yahoo.fr
