1183. Never Quit! From Homeless Teen to Medical Residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital

“By the time I was 16, my family and I had moved at least a couple dozen times. That year my family got evicted one more time and we had nowhere to go. It was my senior year of high school. My parents and 6 of my siblings stayed in a small motel room. I slept in the truck the entire year, and this was in Utah. It was so cold in winter that sometimes my hair would actually freeze at night.

“But I had decided that there was no shortcut in life. I had to work through it and through all these difficult circumstances. I was willing to take risks. I made mistakes. I failed. But that was okay. I kept trying. That’s part of the experience, the process and the idea of not quitting when you fail.

“So I did still go to high school and continued to be an honor roll student, play sports, and be in student government. I actually ended up graduating fourth in my class that year, despite sleeping in a truck every night and also working as a cook in a restaurant to make money for my parents to buy food for my brothers and sisters.

“The statistical odds of me going from sleeping in a truck as a teenager to completing my medical degree at Johns Hopkins Hospital are so astronomically high that I personally think there was some intervention in my life, somebody looking out for me with the purpose of helping me view my past in a different light and of being able to share that with other people, inspiring them to learn from my past. That was my ultimate reason for writing the book Homeless to Hopkins and a children’s version because children in poverty are often the most invisible homeless people of all.”

Dr. Christopher Smith is a Board-Certified practicing physician who completed his residency and fellowship at the world-renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Smith currently lives in Pennsylvania and is a partner with Quantum Imaging and Therapeutic Associates. He dedicates time and resources to raising awareness of homeless children and finding solutions to help them overcome their situation.