2024全球脊柱大會在泰國曼谷完美收官。北美脊柱協(xié)會前主席Jeffrey教授每年對此次大會的特別貢獻。今年他寫信告訴我，明年我們應該可以相見。今晚我又一次想起他告訴我的他父親特別悲壯的人生傳奇故事。“我的父親在我的一生中給我的啟發(fā)最大。他的故事很悲壯，但卻很勵志，這在他們那代人中可能很常見。他在中國大陸中部一個小鎮(zhèn)外的一個小農(nóng)場長大。他很早就知道，如果不離開自己的小鎮(zhèn)，不改變自己的處境，除了在農(nóng)場工作，他將永遠沒有機會做別的事情。13歲那年，他和爺爺把所有能背的農(nóng)產(chǎn)品都打包，兩人走了幾天的路，來到了最近的小鎮(zhèn)賣掉了所有的農(nóng)產(chǎn)品，爺爺把所有的錢都交給了他。我父親拿著錢去最近的城市上學了，自此他再也沒有見過他的父母。他努力供自己上學，離開了祖國，最后在賓夕法尼亞大學取得了政治學博士學位。生活在美國的他，直到五十多歲才有機會與親屬聯(lián)系，而那時，他的父母和大部分兄弟都已經(jīng)去世了。他還給我講了他如何從戰(zhàn)爭中生存下來，如何努力尋找食物，如何努力求學的故事。這些都給我留下了深刻的印象，所以我知道了種瓜得瓜、種豆得豆這個道理。每當醫(yī)院有重要問題或緊急情況時，我就會想到他的艱難，這真的讓人覺得很有意義。他給我最難忘的一個建議是，你無法控制別人的行為和想法，你只能控制自己的行為。所以，即使別人對你不公平，也要公平對待他們，做正確的事。這樣一來，你就可以一直活在你所做的事情中，你就可以在晚上安然入睡了。他是一名教師，雖然是移民，英語不是他的第一語言，但他找到了與人溝通的方法。”

The Global Spine Congress 2024 (GSC 2024) has written a perfect ending in Bangkok, Thailand. The former president of the North American Spine Society (NASS) Prof. Jeffrey Wang has made great contributions to this congress every year. This year, he wrote to me that it might be a good chance that we can meet in the next year. Tonight again, it came to my mind the moving, tragic, but legendary story of his father that he told me. “My father has inspired me the most in my life. He has one of those sad but inspiring stories that are probably quite common to people in his generation. He grew up on a small farm outside a small town in central China. He knew early on, that if he did not leave his town or change his situation, during that period of time in China, he would never have the chance to do anything else but work on a farm. At age 13, he and his father packed all the produce they could carry on their backs, and the two of them walked several days to the nearest town. They sold all the produce and his father handed him all the money. My father took it and went to the nearest city to go to school. He never saw his parents again. He struggled to put himself through school, and left China to get his PhD in political science at the University of Pennsylvania. Living in the United States, he did not have the opportunity to contact any of his relatives, until he was in his fifties, and by then, his parents and most of his brothers had passed away. He told me stories of how he survived the war, struggled to find food to eat, and struggled to get his education. These had such an impression on me that I try to take nothing for granted. Whenever there is an important issue or emergency at the hospital, I think of how tough it was for him, and it really puts things into perspective. One of the most memorable pieces of advice he gave me was that you cannot control what other people do and what they think, you can only control what you do. So even if others are treating you unfairly, treat them fairly and do what is right. That way, you can always live with what you do and you can sleep at night. He was a teacher, and although an immigrant where English was not his mother tongue, he found a way to connect to people.”