It is who you know that counts

It was after the VietNam War and just about everybody was applying to medical school. 64,000 applications in 1975 was the highest number of applicants ever--just my luck!! Oh well what the heck, I just applied anyway because I saw no other interest for me. I really always wanted to be a doctor--just like Dr. Kildare and Dr. Ben Casey from the TV shows of the same name in the 1960's. Afterall, I had never been rejected from anything in my previous 21 years so naturally I would certainly be a success in my quest to matriculate to one of this countries elite med schools. WRONG!!
Sixteen applications. Sixteen rejections. Oh my God say it isn't so. This cannot be happening to me. I am tops in my class in at least 80% of my classes at the UofM. My MCATS are very respectable in the 80-90th % across the country. I was a damn Evans Scholar for God's sake you cannot reject me. This time in my life was a true bummer and I mean I was really bummed!! Little did I know that my fortunes would soon change because I accepted an invitation from my best friends brother to go to a silly 16th birthday party one saturday night. We followed Kenny to Trenton Mich. to the birthday party and low and behold I met for the 1st time Dr. Wm. Athens.
That is Dr. Wm Athens DO. brother of the chairman of the board of trustees of the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. The Athens brothers are full blooded Greeks--oh how sweet !!I still believe to this day that the good Dr. Athens envisioned from the moment he met me that I would make a great son-in-law for one of his daughters and that was why he went to asking me if I wouldn't consider going to osteopathic med school. He was gushing on and on that night all about his alma mater and how he could help me get in. Well you guessed it I did apply to his Chicago school and low and behold I got an interview and wow miraculously I was accepted almost like the good Doctor had snapped his fingers and he "made it so". The rest is as they say is history as this 17th application was my lucky one and I was off and running towards my dream again. Yes sir a lesson learned about this grown up world---it most certainly is not what you know but who you know that makes all the difference. All these years later and nothing has changed .