Session 299 This is a beautiful story of triumph, dedication, determination, hard work, and grit. Today’s episode is packed with amazing stories along with great insights and immense wisdom from someone who has gone through it all. If you’re on this medical school journey and probably thinking you can’t do it, then take some time to listen to this and be inspired! Dr. Richard Carmona served as the 17th Surgeon General of the US. After being homeless at one point, a high school dropout, and special forces medic, he found his calling for medicine. Then he worked his way up to being a Surgeon General, the highest position for any physician in the U.S. For more resources, check out all our other podcasts on the MedEd Media Network to help you along your whichever point you are in your medical school journey. [01:40] Interest in Becoming a Physician As a kid, Richard enjoyed science and learned on his own voraciously. Even in junior high school, he'd read books about anatomy and physiology. He never lost that interest even when he dropped out of high school. Raised by immigrant parents, they struggled and they were homeless. He'd describe their life as being in a survival mode almost every day. Along with that, there were a lot of distractions. On his third year in high school, he was asked to leave and then came back on his senior year, still taking freshmen and sophomore courses. He was 17 at that time. His counselors were very encouraging offering him resources. In hindsight, he thought that if worked harder at that time, he could have done it. But he didn't. So at 17, he was a drop out with no job and not much future ahead of him. So he enlisted in the army. [03:40] Enlisting in the Army Richard describes enlisting in the army as transformative. Without any tangible skills and with little knowledge of the world, he was made into a citizen and he was taught about duty, honor, country, responsibility, how to complete a mission. All those skills were so invaluable, which helped him through medical school. In fact, he believes this is what set him apart from any of his colleagues. "Having been in the military, having gone to combat, and all of the stresses associated with that - it made me a stronger person, a better person." In the army, he went to the infantry. There weren't so many jobs for kids with no experience in training so most of them were taken into the infantry. They are the guys who do the fighting. They teach you weapons and combat. He then went to jump school and became a paratrooper and volunteered for special forces. He got accepted and did pretty well in the testing so he became a pilot and chose special forces. Shortly after, he almost lost it saying he had to be a high school graduate to be in special forces. So he went to the education office, took a GED test, and so he got his high school diploma. He then completed his training in special forces for less over a year. He was a special forces medic and weapon specialist, where he got the training on top of the basic tactical training. [06:36] Being a Military Medic as His First Exposure to the Medical World Richard says being a medic in the military allowed him to gain exposure to medicine. He found it to be a humbling experience, making him see how little he knew even though he knew a lot more than people by the time he finished his training. "In the advanced provider program, which is a special operations medic, you're trained to be the doc. You're in austere environments." Being a special forces medic, you're the medical support for your teams in the most austere environments where there is no doctor or nurse. And back then, there wasn't any reliable radio communication. At 19-20 years old, he took care of gunshot wounds and indigenous forces with parasitic diseases and malaria, as well as delivered babies (twins) in rice paddies, which he did one time in the middle of a firefight. He found it to be very humbling being the only out there and you stand between