This is the story of an amazing young doctor Firas Majid Al Khoury, that shows you who are those refugees you see on TV. Below is his own words
“The journey is as Important as the destination”
When I came to the Netherlands in 2011, I met on my first day in Ter Apel an exceptional man, the security guard who had to search my bag. When he saw my stethoscope, he asked enthusiastically: “Are you a doctor?” My reaction was less enthusiastic “I WAS a doctor.”. His response to that of mine has changed my life. “Once a doctor, always a doctor! 😉 "I realized that he really was right..” I am a doctor, I just have to make sure that I can work here “So I had a goal!
In the subsequent years, four years now, I have everything and I mean everything done to learn the language and to pass the assessment for the foreign qualified doctors and it worked! I work since one year now as a doctor in the Netherlands. Something I could not imagine at all when I was on my way to the Netherlands.
While I was working to achieve my goal, being able to work as a doctor in the Netherlands, I didn’t thought for a second about the whole thing. Nothing was important. I had a goal! This must and should be achieved! However, it is said "The journey is as Important as the destination.”
Tomorrow I start a road trip of 400 km with my bike (Dutch style). From the amazing Maastricht where I now live and work as a doctor to Groningen (Ter Apel) where I got hosted as a refugee in the Netherlands back in 2011. On my way I’ll pass bin and sleep in refugee centers where I’ve stayed during my asylum process: Venlo, Arnhem, Wageningen and Ter Apel.
I want to experience this journey one last time seeking closure from the fact that I’m a refugee and starting to build a home in the Netherlands! I also want to use every chance I get to personally say thank you to all the employees of the COA (Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers) and VWN (Netherlands Refugee Council). They save lives, every day. Not by resuscitation or big surgeries as would a doctor do, but by a simple sentence “Once a doctor, always a doctor”. That security guard saved my life.
Respect!
I hope to achieve my goal again, this time to along with the journey itself!
Wish me good luck
From Baghdad To New York 