John Koeppel:  

I spent all three years sequestered in the Green Room in the Little Theatre in the former Arcadia High School. (I don't know if it's been demolished yet.) I loved the sting of fear before performing. "Do it or blow it. It's all on you." The rest of high school, including scholastics, was a side show. Then, in college, I did "a 180", pulled a 3.8 GPA after a lackluster HS record, and got into medical school at USC. (I got into other schools in the midwest but didn't want to shovel snow.) LAC-USC scared me to tears at first. After a few years, I was happy there because of the independence from attendings. I am so grateful for my 13 years there. It was the adventure of a lifetime. I got to do and see things there I would not have seen anywhere else. The entire world came to us at that place. Then I went out into the world later on, traveling to Africa, Pacifica, places from whence these folks came. I also saw the result of US foreign policy in the form of Central American refugees. Their stories of raids by right wing death squads shook me to the core. So many of them told the same story. My tax dollars at work. Medicine in the US has become unspeakably corrupt, as have so many other US government and corporate institutions. I thought an MD degree would assure employment." Ahh, but you were wrong my young apprentice!" Keeping my skills from those who need them translate into profit for cer...Expand for more