Monday, July 26, 2004
It's My Life
Well, I suppose I should tell my story as well... mine may be a two-part mini-series though... anyone know a producer from TNT? I could be on TV!
I was born in 1977 in BFE - a little military retirement town of around 80,000 at the time. My parents were both military brats that met each other in high school while their respective fathers were stationed at the military base as teachers of some sort or another. My mother was 17 when I was born - that makes her 43 now. You figure out my age.
She dropped out of high school and my father got a job at a steel plant as a welder. I think we were living with my grandparents at the time.
Over the course of the next few years, my family got up on its own feet: my mother completed her GED, my father went to work with my grandfather in the family landscaping business. In 1981, my sister was born. My mother was working at Ethicon as a channel swedger. Yes, the same Ethicon that makes all the wonderful suture with which you sew up the drunken brawlers that come into your ED at 0200. She basically ran the machine that crimped the needle onto the suture. Not the most glorious job, but it paid well.
Shortly before my sister was born, we moved out into a little "suburb" of BFE called Orient. Technically, not a suburb, but the closest thing that BFE is ever likely to have. This used to be a huge ranch that was broken up into lots and sold. I don't think I ever knew the reason why.
Regardless, my budding family had its own piece of land, a house, and a chance at life. I was almost 4 by now.
As I grew, I inevitably entered school. I went to the catholic school in BFE. First Holy Angels and after 3rd grade, the second campus - Sacred Heart. I was never really one to follow rules. When we were supposed to be napping, I wanted to do anything but nap. When we were to sit quietly, I wanted to fidget and make noise. I never really did very well on my Behavior marks... This set the stage for a lot of things to come, I think. One thing I have always been serious about, however, is learning. As long as I can remember, I've taken my education very seriously. When I was a young child, I wanted to know how to write, so I made my mother teach me to write. I'll always remember my poor 1st grade teacher reprimanding me for wanting to write in cursive on my Big Chief pads instead of those dopey print letters. I liked the way cursive looked better. Now I print almost everything because my handwriting is so horrid.
Off the tangent now.
In 5th grade, I was transferred to public school in a very small town - if I had stayed to graduate, I would have graduated in a class of 19. I don't know if public school was good for me or not - I've never really decided. There are distinct pros and cons: I could curse out loud at school and not get put in detention for a week (pro and con - I had a mouth like a sailor by the end of the first 6 weeks of my 5th grade year); my education was very much slowed (con); football (pro); track (con); you see where this is going. By far the most important factor to me was that I now had to push myself that much harder to make damn sure I kept learning. This has always proven a benefit to me, especially now that I am in medical school and the only thing driving me is my ambition.
Life goes on for a while; I never really fit in with the public school crowd. You know how it is: small town, a new kid comes in during 5th grade and totally upsets the status quo because he is smart. I really think a lot of the way I got treated was because of jealousy and bitterness. Of course, I wasn't related to the entire town either.
While I'm in 9th grade, my father hears about this program at the University of North Texas called the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) on the local news. He brings this up to me and I decide that I'd like some more information about it. So, we contact TAMS and they send me an information packet. Long story short, this is a program in which 200 high school juniors are taken out of their high school and complete it at UNT, all the while accumulating college credits. Sounded almost too good to be true - only it is for real. I decide to apply, which requires the SAT and some other documentation from your current high school - transcripts, etc. If you pass the initial look-over, you are invited for an interview, during which time you talk with an administrator, a professor you will probably see in one of your classes, and the staff head-shrinker to determine if you (at 15 or 16) are emotionally stable enough to leave home and endure "college life." You are also given several more exams during the interview day. Apparently, I made the grade, because I was one of the chosen 200 that year in 1994.
And so in late august, I was moving out of my house and into McConnell hall on the UNT campus. What a trip that was!
ok.. it's 0100 and I need to go to bed so I can be at the hospital at 0600 for pre-rounds.
next week on "my life," read about my experiences as a 16 year old on a college campus, how I almost ruined any chance I had of ever gaining admission into medical school, how dumb chance and lady luck saved me from certain doom, and more!
to be continued....... ¶ 11:04 PM
I was born in 1977 in BFE - a little military retirement town of around 80,000 at the time. My parents were both military brats that met each other in high school while their respective fathers were stationed at the military base as teachers of some sort or another. My mother was 17 when I was born - that makes her 43 now. You figure out my age.
She dropped out of high school and my father got a job at a steel plant as a welder. I think we were living with my grandparents at the time.
Over the course of the next few years, my family got up on its own feet: my mother completed her GED, my father went to work with my grandfather in the family landscaping business. In 1981, my sister was born. My mother was working at Ethicon as a channel swedger. Yes, the same Ethicon that makes all the wonderful suture with which you sew up the drunken brawlers that come into your ED at 0200. She basically ran the machine that crimped the needle onto the suture. Not the most glorious job, but it paid well.
Shortly before my sister was born, we moved out into a little "suburb" of BFE called Orient. Technically, not a suburb, but the closest thing that BFE is ever likely to have. This used to be a huge ranch that was broken up into lots and sold. I don't think I ever knew the reason why.
Regardless, my budding family had its own piece of land, a house, and a chance at life. I was almost 4 by now.
As I grew, I inevitably entered school. I went to the catholic school in BFE. First Holy Angels and after 3rd grade, the second campus - Sacred Heart. I was never really one to follow rules. When we were supposed to be napping, I wanted to do anything but nap. When we were to sit quietly, I wanted to fidget and make noise. I never really did very well on my Behavior marks... This set the stage for a lot of things to come, I think. One thing I have always been serious about, however, is learning. As long as I can remember, I've taken my education very seriously. When I was a young child, I wanted to know how to write, so I made my mother teach me to write. I'll always remember my poor 1st grade teacher reprimanding me for wanting to write in cursive on my Big Chief pads instead of those dopey print letters. I liked the way cursive looked better. Now I print almost everything because my handwriting is so horrid.
Off the tangent now.
In 5th grade, I was transferred to public school in a very small town - if I had stayed to graduate, I would have graduated in a class of 19. I don't know if public school was good for me or not - I've never really decided. There are distinct pros and cons: I could curse out loud at school and not get put in detention for a week (pro and con - I had a mouth like a sailor by the end of the first 6 weeks of my 5th grade year); my education was very much slowed (con); football (pro); track (con); you see where this is going. By far the most important factor to me was that I now had to push myself that much harder to make damn sure I kept learning. This has always proven a benefit to me, especially now that I am in medical school and the only thing driving me is my ambition.
Life goes on for a while; I never really fit in with the public school crowd. You know how it is: small town, a new kid comes in during 5th grade and totally upsets the status quo because he is smart. I really think a lot of the way I got treated was because of jealousy and bitterness. Of course, I wasn't related to the entire town either.
While I'm in 9th grade, my father hears about this program at the University of North Texas called the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) on the local news. He brings this up to me and I decide that I'd like some more information about it. So, we contact TAMS and they send me an information packet. Long story short, this is a program in which 200 high school juniors are taken out of their high school and complete it at UNT, all the while accumulating college credits. Sounded almost too good to be true - only it is for real. I decide to apply, which requires the SAT and some other documentation from your current high school - transcripts, etc. If you pass the initial look-over, you are invited for an interview, during which time you talk with an administrator, a professor you will probably see in one of your classes, and the staff head-shrinker to determine if you (at 15 or 16) are emotionally stable enough to leave home and endure "college life." You are also given several more exams during the interview day. Apparently, I made the grade, because I was one of the chosen 200 that year in 1994.
And so in late august, I was moving out of my house and into McConnell hall on the UNT campus. What a trip that was!
ok.. it's 0100 and I need to go to bed so I can be at the hospital at 0600 for pre-rounds.
next week on "my life," read about my experiences as a 16 year old on a college campus, how I almost ruined any chance I had of ever gaining admission into medical school, how dumb chance and lady luck saved me from certain doom, and more!
to be continued....... ¶ 11:04 PM
