EPISODE 15: KELVIN TAM

Interview by Julia Slyer

March 29, 2020

I came to New York from Hong Kong with my family when I was 4. I grew up here, but at home I speak Cantonese. I went back this past summer and visited my mom’s side of the family. Every time I go is nostalgic, even though I’ve never really lived there. It’s this feeling of belonging, in a way. Speaking to people in Cantonese feels very familiar and homey. Like a part of me that’s missing when I’m in America.   
 
I grew up on the Lower East Side in a government housing building on the outskirts of Chinatown. Today it’s gentrified, but back then it was not a good neighborhood. For college, I went to Rochester. In my head I wanted to get away from home, but then I realized that 7 hours away was 7 hours. I felt like it was a big contrast coming from the city with lots of different people, to going to college in Rochester where most people were white and it was much less diverse. There’s all these shows on TV of high school football and hallways of lockers and homecoming, I didn’t know any of that. The typical American small town was just not what I had, so it was a stark contrast once I got to college. It was sort of a culture clash.
 
I also didn’t really have any guidance on what to do in college since I was the first person to go to college in my immediate family. I was just kind of wading through life. Even though I really loved biology, for the longest time, I was just on the premed path but I was always unsure why. I was an only child in an immigrant family, with parents who sacrificed a lot. They left their family and friends behind and dealt with racism at the workplace. My dad even lost a bit of his finger from a work injury. He used to play guitar. I wanted to make sure what they did was worth it. They wanted me to get married, have kids, and buy a house. Maybe I thought I wanted that too. On top of this, I was a closeted kid in a homophobic household. It was terrifying, because you feel like the world is going to end. I didn’t want my family to stop loving me. I didn’t want to feel like a nail in the coffin for their American dream.
 
It took a lot of soul searching but eventually I found my passion for medicine. There were all these external factors, but I realized that my love for biology and the wonder of the human body and the human experience, was all internal. It was a feeling that was greater than anything else. Now that I am here, I always want to learn more. Even though studying for exams is a pain in the ass, the knowledge is amazing. Being able to use that knowledge to actually make a difference in people’s lives is incredible. I always think that this is the closest I’ll ever come to Hogwarts. Medicine is kind of close to magic.
 
I like to remind myself of how lucky I am. As nauseously faux-deep as it sounds, I’m very grateful to be alive and for the privilege of experiencing life. We learn about all this biology and how difficult it is for fertilization to happen. How dangerous pregnancy can be and all the things that could go wrong along the way. How these billions of sacs of chemical reactions called cells come together to form a living thing. How action potentials create experience. And of all the chances in the universe, everything has culminated in me and in today. It’s a gift of impossible odds. I try to make each day count as much as I can.

What are your 5 Most Recently Played Artists on Spotify? 
Harry Styles, Conan Gray, Lewis Capaldi, J Blavin, and The 1975

If you could have any superpower, which one would you choose?
Waterbending, duh.

Pick something or someone from NYMC to give a shout-out to!
The girls from 1114 – Harumi Harakawa, Gigi Abdelhady, Catherine Morse, and Farzana Khan. Eliana Jacobson for the airbed. Josh, Parvathy, Sarah, Lynn, Alex, and Lee for being awesome people.

If someone wants to talk to you, they should lead with: 
ANYTHING ABOUT CRITICAL ROLE OR STEVEN UNIVERSE