Gifted Hands The Ben Carson Story (Chpts. 6-10)

Gifted Hands
By: Ben Carson with Cecil Murphy
Pages: 54-103

• Summary

Ben starts to get into to some conflicts in his life. One conflict is man vs. himself. He starts to get this uncontrollable anger that he can't seem to control. When it gets out of hand he prays to God and asks for help so his temper could go away because it caused him to almost kill one of his good friends. He then starts to draw himself away from the "in-crowd" and starts to focus more on his grades. Ben also joins the ROTC in his school which shows how determined he becomes with his goals. Though he had started ROTC during the middle of the year he had received more medals than most of the others who were there longer than he had. Soon Ben has to start thinking about his college decisions. Each application had a ten dollar fee and he only had ten dollars so he had to pick one college.Ben had to choose between Yale and Hardvard. He chose Yale over Harvard because Yale had beat Harvard on a game show called College Bowl by 510 to 35 points.
College life was very different to Ben. He instantly realized that he wasn't so bright after all and his confidence immediately lowered. He was worried because he was failing chemistry and needed only a miracle to help him pass so he could be able to go to med school. So again he prayed to God and asked for help if He really wanted him to become a doctor. When Ben fell asleep the night before the final exam he had a dream. In his dream, he was in his classroom and there was someone writing on the board. The writing were all equations that he would need on the final. The next day when he received the exam he saw that all the equations he saw in his dream were exactly what he needed to complete the exam. He passed the final with a 97.
During his time in college he had a lot of summer jobs. He worked at a car dealership and then as a supervisor for highway clean-up crew. During his time at work he wanted to do the best work he could do and that's exactly what he did. He also received a job as a highway clean-up supervisor. With his highway clean-up crew his were the only ones who got 150 bags of garbage everyday and achieved this faster than the other crews. He learned a lot from his working experiences and especially confirmed something his mother had always told was true.
At Yale Ben meets Candy whom he falls in love with. She was a sophomore in college while he was a senior. One night while driving with Candy, Ben fell into a quick sleep and almost died. Instead of the car flipping it just kept spinning in the middle of the road.
The reason why Ben Carson is referred to as gifted hands is because he has great hand and eye coordination which is a key characteristic a surgeon must have. Thus leading to the title of this autobiography; Gifted Hands.

• Quotation

"I knew from my own experience how right she was: The kind of job doesn't matter. The length of time on the job doesn't matter, for it's true even with a summer job. If you work hard and do your best, you'll be recognized and moved onward" (Carson 88).

• Reaction

This quote explains something he learned during his time with summer jobs. This saying is something his mother had always told him but he realized on his own that day how true it is. It's saying that when you work hard at something people will see past your appearance and recognize you as who are and in that way you will achieve. I think this is true because when you enter a place you're constantly judged. By working hard towards you're goals you can be seen past your gender or the color of your skin and be seen as the person you really are. Then with that you'll be on your way to success.