José Miguel Rodríguez: a short biography.
I was
born on July 6th, 1987, at Clinica Corominas, in Santiago, Dominican Republic.
My parents were both hardworking architects, happy to receive their first-born,
and second grandkid from both families. I believe I was healthy, but I do know
based on pictures and stories that I was really affected by my asthma (my first
love) and had to be admitted to the hospital on several occasions. I also know
that I was spoiled, with a lot of toys and experiences. My dad started his
carnival group around the same time I was born, so I was dressed in costumes
and participated in family traditions from an early age. Those early years
were good, my parents worked hard, I went to school, and then we all spent our
afternoons in my grandmother's house where the whole family lived. At least
that's what the pictures say. 2 years after I was born my sister came into the
world; 2 years after that, my little brother joined.
When I was four I was registered for English
lessons, these really shaped a lot of who I am today. Apparently, I was told by
my aunt that I was to be called Joe (from Joseph, Jose) Mike (from Michael,
Miguel) so I went to English classes and told my teacher that my name was Joe
Mike, and from that day forward that's how I was known: Joe Mike. Elementary
school (La Salle) was nothing but a continuation from my pre-school because
back in Dominican Republic private schools are set up to allow students to go
through complete primary education in a single institution, at least most of
them. This means I spent 18 years of my life commuting to the same place,
taking classes from 8 AM to 1:30 PM with the same group of classmates, and
seeing the same faces as teachers across breaks and in school activities.
Going through life as a student got
compounded by my love for music, which saw me enroll in piano classes when I
was 12 but dropping out 6 months after due to me and solfa not getting along,
so I decided for a simpler one: popular guitar. This really clicked, my blind
teacher was evidence that you could do anything you wanted if you really worked
hard for it. Now, in school, I was the nerdy student, the one who was defined by
Dragon Ball Z, coming up with weird ideas for science fairs, and getting some
sort of bullying after a couple of embarrassing moments. I was a solid English
speaker, good at guitar, painting, and drawing, and being a role model for
younger kids, I got to play at school events, although my fashion sense was...
null. One big defining thing is that my grandmother was the headmaster of the
school's high school so everybody (teachers that is) knew me and my family:
"Oh you are Fulvia's grandkid", "Mr. Rodriguez, son of Francis,
a man of few words". To this day these words stick with me. I got friend
zoned for the first time, and second, and would not (for the love of me) make
the first move, ever again, after that. Then in 2003, it happened, a massive
accident that nearly had me lose my parents after a car pushed us off the
road while returning from a beach trip with my whole family, a cousin, and 9 of
my sister's high school friends. I saw my dad nearly lose a leg and die, went
through their recovery process at home taking care of their wounds, became
the caretaker for my siblings, got a job at the English institute, and
saw my senior year pass by in a very different way. That experience had me
choose to go into med school, even against my counselor's recommendation to go
into sound engineering.
Ah, college, it began with a bang, I still
remember my first class: Biology 101. Since day one I loved it, I don't know if
it was the lack of wearing a uniform, or the fact that I had been teaching for a
year and considered myself to be more mature than my classmates; I just know it
was good. It was a fresh start, I was not the nerd anymore, I was front and
center, but this time this front and center got me to shine, and people
noticed, I felt relevant and popular. I only became popular during my senior
year because I could give good massages to the girls who sat in front of me. I
quickly gained my teachers' favor. I was good at math, really good, getting an
exemption for my math finals for math 101 and 102. Straight As (except for
social studies, no logic there), sciences were easy, physics? simple, medical
courses? Really cool and easy. I made it a mission to graduate from med school
while working part-time as a teacher and I did: #5 in my class, 3.7 GPA,
international rotation, class unionized, and producer of our graduation concert.
I believe my college career was a great achievement. But the best thing through
these years was that a year and change into my college education I met the
person who would later become my wife: Alicia.
Alicia and I met in a very simple way: I was
asked by a common friend to tutor math. At this stage, I was in my first year of
college and had an ease of understanding math. From that moment I was hooked,
I sneakily got her email address and started emailing and talking to her after
convincing her to give me her phone number. We would talk for hours on the
phone and no, her parents didn’t like me. I think it was because she was their
only girl, but I also know that it was because I was in med school and they
understood that I would have a very irregular life, with long hours and very
little stability. That didn’t deter me though, and, persistent as I am, I kept
on calling and talking and getting to know her. With every conversation, I grew
more fond of her and on March 19, 2007, over MSN Messenger I asked her to be my
girlfriend. We were both very naïve, I had just had 3 girlfriends before her
and was not known for making the first move. It was actually a month and a couple
of days before we kissed for the first time. We had to sneak a lot though to
see each other, her dad would pay a security guard in the university to keep an
eye on her once she started, so we had to find ways of being smart. A year and
a half into our love affair I went to her house and proposed in the least
romantic way possible. I wanted her to know that I would be there for the rest
of her life, to support her, and be by her side. She had had a lot of issues
with her family so once I finished teaching my last class of the day I went to
the closest department store, got the cheapest ring I could find, and drove to
her house. While on my knee her dad pulled into the driveway… at that moment he
knew he had just lost a daughter.
We married in 2011, August 19th,
big ceremony with all the family and friends we could host. We moved into my
grandmother’s old house which we remodeled to fit our needs and for a couple of
years this was our small house. At this stage, I had just graduated med school
and started my public service year as a family doctor, was still working as an
ESL teacher, and had also taken a job at the university as a teacher. A year
after I got the opportunity to join a company that exposed me to medical device
sales and this experience showed me how good I was in this field. I learned a
lot and then decided to pursue a specialization in orthopedic surgery. I
applied, got accepted in the 4th spot overall, and started residency
training in 2014. It wasn’t easy. I went home once every 3 days, sometimes more,
but after a couple of months, it got better. Because of my academic skills, I
became a student coordinator and a leader of my coworkers, advocating for both
patients and students. When I transitioned fully into orthopedics is when I
realized I may not finish residency training. The department heads did not care
about the patients, anyone’s education, or anything at all. After a lot of
thought, I decided to quit, and the company with which I worked in medical
devices offered me a job as a sales manager, which I did successfully for 4
years before being promoted to sales director for the Dominican Republic.
One of
the best things that has happened to me is my daughters, who were born in 2013
and 2016. Before we married we knew we would wait at least 2 years before
having kids, we knew we wanted to be young parents and raise our kids
differently from the ways we were raised. Amelia was the first one and she was
one of the things that influenced me to quit residency training: one day I got
home and she didn’t recognize me as her dad; that did it. Having kids was a
paradigm shift, I don’t believe in a patriarchal system so I always wanted to
be a dad, present. My wife is not the one who cares for the kids, we do; she
cooks, and I clean. We are both parents, both workers, and both humans.
In 2018
we decided to emigrate to Canada, seeking a better future for our kids, a place
where they could grow without fear of crime, with the potential of being
whatever they want to be without reservations, and a place where corruption is
not as rampant as in DR. After a long process we got our approval and moved in
2020 during the first months of the pandemic. It wasn’t easy, we had no job
offers but, thankfully, we have been able to establish ourselves in the
neighborhood, professionally, and the kids are part of the school community.
