My Name Is
My Name Is
My name is Keith Curry, so I have been told for the last 27 years. I’m here at Henry Ford Community Collage pursuing an Associate’s degree in Respiratory Therapy to be followed by, if not proceeded by, a Bachelor’s degree in the field of Medical Management from our neighbor U of M Dearborn. Both of these degrees will be crowned with the completion of a Master’s program in the field of Physician’s Assistant. As a child it was never a dream of mine to be a doctor or any kind of assistant of one. So what brought me here? Let’s see if we can figure it out together shall we.
School was never really my thing. I mean I have the aptitude for it but just never cared for it. In my teens I always wrote it off as one of those old clichés. You know the ones I’m referring to. “Preacher’s kids are the worst”, “Doctor’s kids do the most drugs”, and of course my favorite “Teacher’s kids are the ones most likely to hate school”. Well, like you I fall into that teacher’s kid category.
My mom recently retired from the Detroit Public School system after 21 years of service as an elementary school teacher, 3 years as an assistant principle, and 11 years as a principle. I guess you can say my mother prepped me for collage life early. I can remember sitting in the back of lecture halls at Wayne State doing my homework while she was in class working on her Masters. The “Wedding Cake” building was my second home as I sat in on many a meeting with her professor’s and counselors. I promised myself I was never going to collage!
Having cursed any and all things to do with higher learning I set the bar to graduate high school and join the work force. I got my first job at the age of 14. My family was part owner of a cemetery in Detroit and this would be my summer job for the next 3 years. My job title was grounds keeper but it should have been “The one that does it all”. I did everything from weed whip around head stones to cremate bodies. I didn’t realize it than, but at $12.50 an hour...