My Hero: Dr. Gerald Grant
By Colin Grant
The person in my life who has had the most impact and who has helped me the most is Dr. Gerald Grant. My hero was born in 1969. I also call him dad. My dad is more than a dad, he is my hero. My dad works at Duke university as a neurosurgeon. He gets up early in the morning to go to work and usually comes home late at night right before I go to bed. I love the weekends because he only has to leave in the morning and go and see each of his patients. On the weekend he gets home at about lunchtime and we have a family lunch. My dad grew up in Rockaway, NJ. He had an older brother named Tim. Tim and my dad were very competitive with each other, so they weren’t always nice to each other. My dad was always smaller and still is smaller than Tim. My dad is six foot two and his brother is six foot five. My dad took karate during his childhood so that he was able to compete with his brother. Also he played the piano through middle school. My dad played a lot of little league sports when he was young. The one that he played the most was basketball. He really wanted to play basketball in high school but he wasn’t tall enough to make the team.
In high school my dad decided that he wanted to get involved with medicine. He was inspired by his mom who was a nurse. Also during high school he volunteered to help out in the emergency room to get to know more about what you needed to be a doctor. My dad went to college at Duke University and since my dad couldn’t play sports, he got very interested in band. He played the alto saxophone all of his four years. He had to work hard, but it paid off because he got to go to many Duke football and basketball games, including two final fours. Also my dad was very dedicated to his academics and getting good grades. My dad never got a bad grade in college except for the time that he took a scuba diving class.
My dad is a very determined person. My dad was always determined to get good grades throughout his school career and he did. He leaves for work early and arrives ahead of schedule every day. He also works very late into the night, sometimes getting home around ten thirty. My dad saves many children’s lives each day. He also has to leave for many trips for workevery month and some are out of the country. Even though I do not see him that much, he still is determined to get home and spend time with my brother, my sister, my mom and me.
My dad is also a very confident person with his ideas. One time, when my dad had to serve in Iraq as a doctor, he was there for four months. Even though he was away and working ninety nine percent of the time, he would to call us almost every night. When he was in Iraq, there was a big jeep that was blown up by a mine. Everybody in the jeep was severely injured. They flew everyone that was in the jeep back in a helicopter. The soldier who was driving the jeep got a mine shell stuck in his head. Everyone thought that he was going to die and no one thought that it was worth it to operate on him. Everyone thought it was a waste of supplies. My dad was very confident and took the risk. He had to operate very quickly but carefully. Also, in order to remove the shell, he had to take part of the soldier’s skull out. He was very confident that he could make him better even though the surgery was very difficult. After the operation, most of the supplies that my dad used had almost run out. Later, the soldier was sent back to the United States to recuperate. After my dad returned from Iraq, he had to take a trip to Washington D.C. for a work meeting. While he was at the hospital where the meeting was being held, he got to see the soldier that he had operated on. The soldier was there getting a replacement for the part of his skull that my dad had to take out. In the war hospitals, after a doctor would operate on someone, the doctor would never get to see that person again or be thanked for it. So when my dad got to see him again it was really reassuring. He knew that his confidence paid off and operating on the soldier was the right choice.
Also my dad is a very caring and fun person. My dad cares for a lot of different children where he works, but he also cares for me. My dad gets all the time he can to have fun with me. He takes me on skiing trips, he takes me zip lining, and he makes time to have fun even though his work schedule is very busy. While doing this he also cares for me. He makes the most out of the time he has with me.
My dad is my hero because he is a very determined, confident, caring, and fun person. I admire him very much. I admire him because he works very hard every day and saves lives. I also admire him because he still comes home and spends time with me. I want to be like him when I grow up.
