Minh Han:
CLASS OF 1991
Alief-Hastings High SchoolClass of 1991
Houston, TX
Rice UniversityClass of 1994
Houston, TX
Minh's Story
Life
I am currently a family practice doctor living in CT with my partner Mike of 9 years. Egan, Mike's 15 y/o son spends half his time with us and half with his mother who lives nearby.
Other than work long hours in the office, I go to church and keep saltwater aquariums as a hobby. I also enjoy travelling and have done a number of medical mission trips.
Feel free to visit my website. I can't post it directly apparently, because of some sort of "Community Standard." You can find it by googling my name, or type in the acronym for the world wide web followed by minhsmissions, and the most common ending.
School
Activities at Hastings included orchestra in 9th grade, diving from 10-12th, and choir in 12th. I enjoyed Spanish and got up to Spanish III with Sra Bosque, but I had other classes I wanted to take and therefore did not continue to Spanish IV. Nevertheless, I still remember some Spanish and use it on a regular basis at work.
I didn't have many friends at school. Most of the time, it was because I considered everyone else beneath me and not worth my time. Other times, it was because I was jealous they were better than I was in some area, and I was trying to be #1. But looking back--with some years of wisdom and self reflection I have now that I did not have then-- it was mostly because I could not accept myself for who I was and was always desperately (if sometimes unconsciously) seeking the approval of others. I wanted to be praised and looked up to, but at the same time I wanted to be a part of the crowd. These attributes did not endear me to my classmates, and therefore I did not create many bridges of communication.
It was also during high school that two aspects of my life grew by exponential proportions and yet were in my mind diametrically opposed to each other: my deepening faith as a conservative, evangelical Christian, and my self-awareness and sexual attraction towards other men. I was taught that homosexuality was an abomination in God's sight. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah after all. And yet all my sexual urges and fantasies were for men. I was a 6 on the Kinsey Scale. Daily I wrestled with self-loathing. I tried to sublimate my sexual desires into other activities, but to no avail. I tried dating once in 12th grade. I really liked Tanya Wong as a friend, but we were terrible as boyfriend and girlfriend. All we ever did was kiss, but it didn't do much for me. Not that it was her fault. I just was (and am) in no way physically attracted to women. We dated for a few months and then she broke up with me.
I thought several times about killing myself, but I didn't have the guts to do it. Plus, who knew, if I killed myself, I might spend all of eternity in hell. So, I went on with life, hating myself. And in my desperate attempt to get someone, anyone, to approve of me, I just succeeded in turning most everyone away. To this day, I can't think of anyone in high school I still consider a close friend. I never trusted anyone enough to open up to.
I did confess my homosexual attraction to one of my best friends, a home-schooled kid one year my senior named Nate. He also happened to be my pastor's middle son. When Nate found out, he told our mutual church friend Ryan, and then he told his dad. I was forced to sit through gruelling hours of counselling with Pastor Thomson as he opened up the Bible and told me that I was having homosexual desires because I had unloving attitudes towards a significant female figure in my life...Expand for more
-- my mother-- and therefore X'd out _all_ females from my mind. Thus, I had only men to turn to as I hit puberty and developed sexual desires. Although I was very convicted about this and REALLY tried to change, it was all to no avail. That only made me more depressed.
Thus, I ended up graduating from Hastings. Fourth in my class, with acceptance to both Rice and Yale, and likely one of the most miserable people in the whole school.
College
I graduated from Rice with a BA in biochemistry, but if I had to do it all over, I would be a Spanish/Linguistics double major and just take the science classes I really liked instead of the completely useless ones required for my major.
I was very involved with Campus Crusade For Christ while at Rice. It offered in some respects a place of refuge, but in other ways, CCC served to rub salt in wounds.
I developed a few close friendships while in college. While one or two have stood the test of trial and time, most of my friendships were dropped liked hot potatoes when I told them I was gay. Some of those friends outted me to others, who in turn outted me to more. The thing that irked me the most is that they all did it in the name of Christian love. "Oh, let's save Minh's soul by telling him all about the sin he's in and getting him to repent."
Still college was not all bad by any means. I was only there for three years, but I got to do a lot. And by living with my grandmother for two out of the three years, I ended up with a phenomenal education at a price hard to beat even at a state school.
Plus, because I chose Rice, I was eligible for acceptance into the Rice-Baylor Scholars Program, to which I was wait-listed over the previous summer. Acceptance meant I was guaranteed a spot in medical school without further application and without having to take the MCAT. I spent my senior year at Rice with 13 and 12 hours of credit each semester, relaxing and enjoying electives like History of Music and Modern Theologians, while my classmates were slaving over "Princeton Review's Cracking the MCAT."
Workplace
After medical school at Baylor, I was matched at the family practice residency in Roanoke, VA, my first choice. Again, it was a time for personal growth and furthering my medical knowledge. I also served as a medical examiner for almost two years while there, and I learned a TON. Definitely not a job for the faint of heart. I was in the medical examiner's office that dealt with the aftermath of the shooting at Virginia Tech. I am so glad that I wasn't there for that tragedy.
While in Roanoke, I also met my life partner Mike, with whom I still share my life nine years later. Mike and his son Egan have become my family. They even left their home state of Virginia to move up to Connecticut with me when I was asked to take over a medical practice. My mother had met and married an internal medicine doctor from CT, and he needed someone to take over his office so he could move down to Houston to be with her. After a few visits and long discussions with Mike, I accepted. And that's where I am now.
I currently have my main office in Manchester, CT, but I also work in a satellite office. I do mostly outpatient care, but I see my patients in the hospital and go to a nursing home. I also serve as the high school physician for the Howell Cheney Technical High School and am on the Board of Directors for ProHealth Physicians, the company I work under.
Military
The military definitely would NOT want me!!
Register for Free to view all details!
Reunions
