Michael’s Story

From family restaurants to the Operating Room

I got my first job when I was 11 years old. I was a dishwasher at my father’s restaurant, where eventually I graduated to food prep, short order cook, and ultimately made it to the grill. While time in the family restaurant equipped me with a tough work ethic and decent cooking skills, I do not remember it as a particularly enjoyable time in my life. I would have rather been playing with friends, attending Friday night high school football games, and other social events most kids my age were able to enjoy. My schedule throughout childhood entailed going to school, then going promptly to work. There are a couple of things I simply can’t eat this day due to my time at the restaurant. One is shell fish and shrimp —as a prep cook, I had to hand clean 5 gallon buckets of shrimp. The other is cheesecake, which I made every day for nearly 8 years.

While I didn’t love it, time in the restaurant gave me the insight that hard work really does pay off. As I entered my teen years, I became determined to be the best student I could be so that I didn’t have to continue working in restaurants for the rest of my life. That mindset has supported me throughout my education and career. I graduated valedictorian of my high school class in 1978, graduated suma cum laude in college, and graduated from medical school with honors.

lucky breaks on the path to medical school

I caught a few lucky breaks on the way to medical school. One of those was when my guidance counselor in high school pulled me into his office one afternoon during my senior year and asked if I had applied to college yet. At that time, I was still working in my family’s restaurant and just trying to survive, I hadn’t looked at any college materials. The counselor panicked, grabbed an application to the University of Illinois, we filled it out in his office, and mailed it out that afternoon. I missed the deadline, but was put on a waiting list and eventually accepted after a few weeks.

My college years were some of the happiest times I have ever known. I met wonderful and inspiring people. One of the influential people I had the opportunity to meet while in college was my roommate, Scott Johnson. Scott was the greatest person I have ever come to meet, to this day. He was gifted, intelligent, funny, and had unparalleled social skills. I learned from Scott how to not sweat the small stuff in life too much. Scott contracted the AIDS virus just as the medical community was discovering what it was, and he died in his early 30s. My relationship with Scott has left a meaningful impact on me throughout my life and career.

I came across a second lucky break at the start of my senior year of college. That summer, the economic recession occurred during the Carter Administration and I couldn’t find a job to save money for my final year of school. A bank foreclosed on my family’s restaurant and it was shut down. I had just enough money from guaranteed student loans to pay for tuition and a month of rent, but I could not find any local work near campus that would help me pay for living expenses. Just as I was packing up to return home, I received a letter from a program that housed disabled students. Due to my high-grade point average, I was invited to interview for a position to assist disabled students in their activities of daily living and help them attend classes. Ultimately, I landed the position and the job paid my tuition, room, and board.

I feel fortunate to be in the field I’m in and have the career I have today. There are people, teachers, and friends who helped me along the way and I am deeply grateful to them.