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Journeys User4November 22, 2024March 5, 2025Clinical Training Experience, Cross-cultural Experience, My Story, Post J-1 ExperienceAlumni, Headache Medicine, Kentucky, Neurology, Pakistan, Returning Author, Texas

Growth is Best When Shared

By Dr. Muhammad Ismail Khalid Yousaf

“Serve well and learn more—they’ve given you a place in their country, and it takes a big heart to do that,” my paternal grandmother, Jamila Begum, told me during our family’s ritual prayers before I left for the airport to begin my training in the United States. This 7,500-mile journey from Pakistan to Kentucky came with its own uncertainties and challenges, but the belief that “there is a blessing when you migrate to study abroad” was deeply rooted in my cultural and religious values. I was determined to carry forward these virtues with pride and dignity, as my parents had sacrificed everything to ensure I received the best training, and my wife’s support to get me to the United States to train was monumental. Thanks to the BridgeUSA J-1 Exchange Visitor Program, I was fortunate to match and start my training at the University of Louisville (“UofL”) School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology.

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Journeys User4May 25, 2022March 5, 2025My Story, Words of WisdomCOVID-19, Kentucky, Pakistan, PGY3, Returning Author

Fear, Prayer, and the Unknown: First-time Parenthood in a Pandemic

By Dr. Muhammad Ismail Khalid Yousaf

“Did you see any COVID-19 patients today?” my wife nervously asked as I entered our home. I was clad in an N-95 mask for the first time. “Not yet” I replied.

My mask and her concerns were well-warranted; we were about to be first-time parents, and she was in her last trimester. Our relatives and friends would routinely ask, “When is your gift from God coming?” and we always cautiously replied, “Anytime now, just pray—you know how times are….”

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Journeys User4June 18, 2019July 15, 2020My Story, Post J-1 Experience, Words of WisdomAlumni, Canada, Hand Surgery, Kentucky

A Hand Offered Forward

By Dr. Julie Chakriya Kvann

“Hello! Who are you, where do you come from?” They asked with their hand offered forward. I was starting my fellowship at the Kleinert Hand Institute.

I was always puzzled when I was asked this question. I was a visible minority even back in my hometown, although I was born there. What do they want to know? Where I am originally from? Where I was born and grew up? Where I went for university, or the program I graduated from?

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Journeys User4April 16, 2019July 15, 2020My Story, Words of WisdomIndia, Internal Medicine, Kentucky, PGY11 Comment

Finding My “Work Family” in Residency

By Dr. Khushboo Gala

When all my friends were graduating university and acquiring their first jobs, I was still midway through medical school, struggling through books and clinical rotations. I would listen to their stories of office friends and “work families” in awe – and wonder, when will I have this?

Fast forward through completing medical school, giving my steps, applying for residency, interview season… All those years erased the aforementioned questions from my mind. I was so focused on exams and landing a residency position in a foreign country, that I completely forgot about my yearning to be a working woman. On Match Day, though, having a job became a reality. In just a few months, I would be working for the first time in my life, in a distant place, in a hospital where I knew no one and no one knew me. Suddenly, residency went from being my dream to my fear.

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