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 with heath and dental I was doing better than most adults. Again I was only 14 so all my money was donated to Hudsons, Footlocker, GameStop, and trips to Cedar Point. I also bought my first car because of this job. As planned, I graduated from Davis Aerospace High School in 1999. Also as planned I joined the work force. After a short 3 months on the waiting list I joined Detroit’s Fire Department Fall of 1999 Training Academy. I graduated one year later and began what I thought would be my career until retirement. Boy was I wrong! Now I know what you’re thinking, “All work and no play makes Keith a very dull boy”. It wasn’t all work and a hate for higher education. There was a lot more, trust me. 2000 was also a big year for my personal life. It was the year that my high school girlfriend and I made the decision that we were too “grown” for condoms. Yeah, at 19. We were married and my first child was born. Life was good I must say. New wife, new baby boy, and a new job. The City of Detroit pays terribly, but they make up for it in benefits and overtime.
My wife was a stay at home mom up until 2004. I worked anywhere from 60 to 90 hours a week. It wasn’t long before our second child was on the way. Still too grown for condoms I guess. It was March of 2004 that the first few bricks of the yellow brick road that would lead me here were laid.
I began to rethink my career as a fire fighter not long after I found myself on my back staring up at a 5x5 whole 25 feet in the air that I had just fallen through. I walked away with nothing more than 2 herniated disks and a pinched nerve. I say “nothing more than” because floor cave ins take the lives of hundreds of fire fighters a year state wide. It was the opinion of all my treating physicians that I would never be able to do the work of a fire fighter again.
I was on job injury getting works comp for about 15 months before I was called back to work for restricted duty. By the way, during the time off work me and wifey had our 3 child. Nothing gets the old sex drive running faster than class three pain killers I guess. I was back at work for 6 months doing busy work when I got a letter with my pay check. “We regret to inform you that The City can no longer accommodate your work restrictions”. That was it, no comp, no promise of another job in the department, just a nice “your fired” letter and my last pay check.
I don’t even think I made it home before I was on the phone with my attorney. I will save you the legality of it all and skip to the end. I dropped my wrongful termination lawsuit in exchange for a nice 6 figure settlement. Much like with their trash pick up the city of Detroit is slow paying out law suits so I watch for calls from my attorney telling me to come pick up a check.
I started my own non-profit that provides sports and mentoring programs to Detroit Public School kids. My wife has been employed in the gaming industry sense 2004. Between her income and the salary I pay myself as C.E.O. of Lighthouse Inc. we still do pretty well for ourselves.
It was the mother of one of the boys in my program that made me began to look at a career in the medical field. I would always see her dropping her son off wearing hospital scrubs. One day shed be in a Benz truck and the next in a S 600. So I ask one day “wow, that nurse money must be nice?” and she replied “nurse, I’m not a nurse. I’m a respiratory therapist”. In a Dr. Evil voice I said “tell me more”. After introducing her and my wife, mama didn’t raise no fool, I was able to shadow her at work a few times and decided this was what I wanted to do for a living.
I got online and found a school that had a R.T. program. HFCC was at the top of the list. I enrolled December of 2007 and began Winter of 2008. I went on the waiting list for the respiratory therapy program August of 2008. If I don’t get into the Fall of 2009 class I will began working on my Bachelors in a fast track 14 month program at U of M. From a hatred of all things related to higher learning to getting my bachelors even before my associates and having my academic career laid out for the next 4 years, here I am.
Sense being back in school I love everything about it. Not at all trying to kiss up, but English is my favorite subject. I love to write, and can take or leave reading. Any subject that allows me to think out of the box and express my opinion publicly on taboo subjects is great.
While there are no more babies planed for in the near future, I still have fun outside of school and work. I love online gaming. Playstation 3, X-Box 360, and the Wii consume a lot of my free time. I can bowl and bar hop with the best of them. I’m learning how to play guitar, electric of course. I go to Vegas at least 3 times a year, buy season passes to Cedar Point, make sure my kids see Mickey at least once a year, and see to my wife getting sun burn on some out of country beach or cruise ship deck.
You made a statement in class Friday that all the authors that we read about are dead. I won’t go into detail about what you meant but I understand fully. I look at myself and how I have changed over the years. This is one of those essays that I will hold onto and review in the next 5 or 10 years to see if the Keith of January 2009 is still alive and kicking or if my life has given birth to a new me.