When you’re a kid, one of your least-favorite experiences is having to go to the doctor’s office.
But when Ben Carson was a child growing up in Detroit five decades ago, he didn’t fit the mold. He looked forward to visits to the physician, even if it meant getting a shot with a needle. He was fascinated by the instruments in the examination room, the language that doctors and nurses used to discuss conditions and illnesses.
“Medicine was the only thing that interested me,” said Carson, who spoke to local high school students Friday morning during a visit to High Point.
If he went to a hospital because a relative was receiving care, the adolescent Carson would sit in the waiting area soaking in the sights and sounds. He’d hear a booming voice on the public address system call out, “Calling Dr. Smith” or “Calling Dr. Jones.” He imagined that one day the public address announcer would proclaim, “Calling Dr. Carson.”
Years later, that dream would come true.
Carson became one of the top neurosurgeons in the nation, including service as director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital by the time he was 33 years old.
Now retired, Carson has become a philanthropist and motivational speaker. In addition to speaking with young people in the auditorium at First Wesleyan Church, Carson spoke Friday night at High Point Theatre in a fundraiser for the Piedmont Triad chapter of the Carson Scholars Fund. The fund provides scholarships for college students and establishes reading rooms at schools.
Whether it’s medicine or another intellectual or professional pursuit, Carson encouraged the young men and women in the audience to seize on their gifts and talents.
“Think about your intellectual talents, not the easiest path,” he said.
His visit to High Point was privately funded through local donors. The students at the morning address were from private and public schools.
A spokeswoman for the Guilford County Schools said the school system was provided 500 tickets for Carson’s speech. The tickets were offered to students on a voluntary basis, and parents signed a permission slip for their sons or daughters to attend.
In his morning address, Carson candidly discussed growing up in an impoverished household in which his parents divorced. But as he was raised by his mother, Carson said, he and his siblings were never allowed to offer an excuse not to succeed.
“Have a can-do attitude,” he told the young people.
