" wrote in
:

On 16 Aug 2012 15:25:11 GMT, Han wrote:

snip
I moved to the US because upon finishing my masters in Holland I got
offered a job as a technician in a Harvard lab, with the promise from
my Dutch professor (Laurens van Deenen) that if my work was good
enough there, I would get a (Dutch) PhD.

Why couldn't you get the same opportunity in Holland?

I was not offered that opportunity in Holland. Maybe I wasn't good
enough, maybe my buddy and I were the only ones who could get "tricked"
into going to Boston.

My alternative was compulsory military service (in 1969, there was a
draft in Holland). I got a J-1 visa, later
converted to a green card by reason of me being indispensable for the
lab's work. My wife got an interview with a highly regarded professor
at the Mass General Hospital for a technician's job, so we could live
in Cambridge, Mass, not the cheapest place on earth. I took the
chance because it seemed the way to start a career. I was unemployed
for a 3 months (long story), but found a job in New York that I stayed
with for 34 years. So yes, I did "fail" at some point, but was
lucky/capable enough to get going again. So, one thing led to another,
and as many, but not all in similar positions, I stayed in the US, not
too far from where my grandchildren live. My son-in-law and
daughter-in-law think we might the right choice, did and do the right
things. Now I got pertussis and have to overcome that cough ...

I don't need your life's story. OTOH, I don't understand how you can
come here because the opportunities are better and turn around and
want everything that crushed the opportunities where you're from.

It was an opportunity that I couldn't refuse, as I felt it. I am
relating my ideas and feelings, because they are different from some of
the feelings and ideas others here have, and because it is always good to
discuss those and perhaps open minds to different ways of doing things.
No judgement to better or worse, just different. And yes, while Holland
is doing very well in the EU today and there are many opportunities
there, at the few times I could have made a switch from here to there,
the opportunities weren't there. So it was better to try in a country of
300 million than in a country of 15 million.

--
Best regards
Han
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