Sometimes when I try and sum up my entire life, I feel there one word that can describe my ongoing journey, my struggle at being atypical. It's a contradiction of course, I'm a Vietnamese American guy who's family owns a salon, and who goes to pharmacy school. Even my brother is a pharmacist. How much more can I fit into the general Vietnamese stereotype? Yet, deep within my soul, I know that I can't be another generic Toan who graduates to work for a greedy chain pharmacy, which has no other interest other than how many prescriptions I can churn out in one hour. So each day, I push myself to be different. Thank goodness that there are so many opportunities for me in this profession. With pharmacy, there are so many options, you can do hospital pharmacy, ambulatory care, industry, and retail. So while everything about me says that I'm following in the typical pathway of a young Vietnamese-American, the opportunities allow me to stray away. While I'll eventually be a pharmacist, I'll be more than your stereotype. Atleast I hope to be. I hope to work for a pharmaceutical company, working in regulatory affairs; I want to help make sure that these companies are complying with the regulations of organizations like the FDA.
While the opportunities in pharmacy school allow me to detract from the usual course, I think being gay has an important contribution as well. Being gay has allowed me to be open and take on a different mentality; I can never reject something unless I've atleast tried it or considered it once before. Being so open is why I've allowed and want myself to be different.
It's a constant struggle within me, as I try and fight the typical by being atypical. Then again, should I really care? Why do I really care if I fall into a stereotype? Society has judged us (gays) so much for being different, why should I care if I'm to be judged for being generic? I should be happy for once to be just the same as everyone else.
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