44 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • FEBRUARY 2022
FAMILY & EDUCATION
A DOCTOR’S TRUE TALE OF RESILIENCE THROUGH READING
continued from page 43
FROM COLUMBIA S.A. TO
PRINCETON
As a 13-year-old boy living with his
grandmothers, Harold Fernandez was
eager to escape his native Medellín, Columbia,
then the epicenter of the drug
trade, and join his parents, both undocumented
factory workers, at their home
in New Jersey.
Finally, his mother arranged for him and
his 11-year-old brother to be smuggled
in a boat with a chaperone and 10 other
immigrants to Miami via the Bahamas.
“It was only supposed to take three days
and ended up taking two weeks,” explains
Fernandez, because of the bad
weather that delayed their Bahamian
departure.
After a seven-hour journey fi lled with
tears, fear, and many prayers, the Fernandez
brothers arrived in Miami on
Oct. 26, 1978 and were soon reunited
with their parents.
Starting over in school proved a monumental
challenge to the boys, who had to
learn English and encountered constant
confl icts with other kids, who disdainfully
called them “refugees.”
“They would tell us to ‘Go back to your
own country.’ They would make fun of
our accents,” Dr. Fernandez recalls.
Books gave the young teen solace and
would set him on the path to success.
An avid reader back in Columbia, Fernandez
Outdoor
Fitness Outdoor
Fitness Tent
was soon devouring books in
English. Before long, he joined the Boy
Scouts and practically memorized the
Boy Scout handbook, relishing its useful
fi rst aid techniques that piqued his interest
in medicine.
As a young boy, Fernandez had frequently
observed doctors who made house
calls, bringing care and relief to his ailing
abuelas.
“I always wanted to do the same thing for
other people,” he says.
A THREESTEP PATH TO
SUCCESS
Often, Fernandez observes, young people
feel overwhelmed and helpless.
“They don’t realize that it’s in their hands
to change the course of their lives by really
focusing on their education and reading
whatever books they like,” he says.
In A Boy and a Book, Fernandez explores
what changed his life after struggling
in his adopted homeland with a
new language, new surroundings, and
no friends, and shares the keys to his
success in three steps.
Step 1: Be prepared.
Before going into a class, read up on the
topic. With the Khan Academy and so
many other resources, there’s no excuse
to not make an eff ort, he says. “I
always felt that if you go to a lecture and
you know just a little bit about it, it just
makes you learn things so much better.”
Step 2: Physical learning
To prevent zoning out while studying,
periodically get up, walk around, and
review what you just read. Doing so, he
explains, helps you retain information.
Step 3: Share what you learn with someone
else.
If you can teach someone else, it means
that you truly know it yourself. As a father,
Fernandez has shared his abiding
love for learning with his daughter, 24,
and son, 18.
“I always told my kids that I wanted to
give them three gifts: reading, mathematics,
and music.”
A Boy and A Book is available electronically
and in hard or soft cover on Amazon
or Barnes & Noble and through
haroldfernandez.com.
“They dont realize that its in their hands to
change the course of their lives by really focusing
on their education,” says Dr. Harold Fernandez.
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