Never let your past stop you from moving ahead with your life. Although you may have made mistakes or taken a bad path in the past you can *always* return to the path of success, it just will be a little more complicated and may take longer. To support this I will describe my story, the factors against me, and the bad choices I made.
It starts from teh beginning, my first year of elementary school was spent in special education and then later I was held back a year since they thought I was mentally delayed because of a severe speech problem. After standarized testing I was allowed to re-enter the general student population but had to take speech therapy for 6 years. Then in high school we had standardized testing(yet again) and I was placed a year ahead in some classes (math, English, science). Thing is when I became 12 I suddenly felt overwhelmingly depressed. I started cutting myself nonstop, I didn't put effort in anything, my longest school streak was 4 days in a row, and I ended up being hospitalized for psychiatric reasons several times which in turn made school even more difficult. So, logically, I dropped out in 11th grade, but I was lucky enough that there was an "alternative highschool" near me that I was pushed into. They allowed me to graduate with a highschool diploma, were very lax with time restrictions, and worked around my mental illness.
After highschool I spent 3 years with various suicide attempts, going in and out of hospitals (again, psych reasons), and recieving over 100 shock treatments (E.C.T.) Thanks to my psychiatrist, wife, and family I was finally pushed to go to community college. I started in computers but switched to liberal arts aiming to go to an ivy league college. I still battled depression and there were multiple times I almost committed myself to the hospital. Yet, I ended up being accepted to an ivy league school.
At this prestigous school, my depression got worse, I was alone on a campus of +10,000 students. I became jaded with medicine and didn't apply to medical school. I moved to a different city, quit my psych meds and started cutting myself profusely again. Eventually I applied to medical schools and was accepted even though I am perhaps one of the worst interviewees there can be.
While in med school I was told repeatedly that I "didn't have a doctors personality" and I would "never last". They were right in some part, as I did have some trouble. I was involuntary committed to the hospital last year and then my lovely dean tried to block me from being reinstated as a student after finding out it was a mental hospital that I had spent time in.
Yet, despite all of this: the speech problem, the supposed mental delay, the overhelming overly specific obsessions, dropping out out highschool, the multiple forced hospital admissions, the 100 plus procedures that fried my brain, and all the people telling me it's impossible and I can never do it, I am 3 easy months away from finishing. Not only that, this supposed mental handicapped, mentally ill, socially inept person is beating at least 50% of his healthy, normal, non-mentally ill fellow students.
Point is: We all have challanges, people on this forum probably more than others, and no matter how large they seem or how everyone is yelling "you can't do that", you CAN achieve your goals and there IS a way. You just have to search for it, press HARD, and don't give in.
I hoped this helped at least one person. And if it didn't, sorry for rambling. Also feel free to PM me with questions or whatever.
09 Jan 2010, 8:39 pm
