I met my best friend, Adam Ward, during my freshman year of college. Adam and I met through our fraternity that I pledged at Texas Tech University. I had just transferred from Trinity University in San Antonio where I was miserable attempting to keep up with football and school.
Adam was the social chair for fraternity. Like any pledge wanting to make an impression, I was quick to share with Adam my talents. Although my pledge brothers had several talents including persuading females to attend our parties, or the ability to pick up a date for one of our parties at a moment’s notice, my skills fell into another realm- painting. Adam and I were on the same page from the start. We wanted to throw parties that were not only fun, but had style points as well. Our crowning achievement was the Heaven and Hell party we threw that spring. According to Adam, this was “my ticket in.” We replicated scenes from the Sistine chapel throughout the Heaven side of the room which would be later filled with packing peanuts- symbolic of clouds of course. The party was amazing and one of the best nights of my college experience. It was tough seeing our work ripped down the morning after the party during our pledge sponsored clean-up of beer cans and trails of packing peanuts now extending into the yard and street. For the first time however, I realized I could paint on a grand scale. That experience led to me painting party backdrops not only for our fraternity, but for other sororities and fraternities as well throughout my college career.
Adam and I continued to be great friends that semester. Later, I asked him to be my “big brother” that semester. Adam became the closest thing to a brother I have ever known. Two years later, I convinced Adam to join me during the summer to sell books for the Southwestern company. We made a fortune that summer, and learned the art of the sale. His ability to sell anyone at anytime simply amazed me. I was good at the job in that I played the numbers. That summer job, which I eventually did for four summers total, financed my undergraduate education as well as my pickup truck I still own. Adam, however, surpassed me in his ability to sell himself in any situation. After a few years of resort furniture sales, he’s now working towards his MBA at Texas A&M.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about Adam besides his ability to sell is his innate ability to see ideas with potential. His ideas are always legitimate, and insightful. During college he had ideas for parties, which morphed into incredible themes. Now he has ideas to make hotel stays more efficient in the US, much like the pod hotels we’re seeing pop up through Europe. They are currently trickling into NYC. He has an ability to utilize his experiences such as his travels across Europe when he studied abroad in Prague, in order to let his imagination run wild with ideas of influencing our experiences while staying in large cities. From Adam, I’ve learned to let my past experiences shape and influence my ideas for medicine. I’ve learned that those ideas we have as a kid in college can take root, grow and live on through passions for our careers. I now take the time to jot down my ideas and refer back to them to see if they can grow into a solution for problems I see while treating patients in the hospital. Adam had an innate ability to foster his ideas and never let them die. For that influence, I am forever grateful.
Adam was the social chair for fraternity. Like any pledge wanting to make an impression, I was quick to share with Adam my talents. Although my pledge brothers had several talents including persuading females to attend our parties, or the ability to pick up a date for one of our parties at a moment’s notice, my skills fell into another realm- painting. Adam and I were on the same page from the start. We wanted to throw parties that were not only fun, but had style points as well. Our crowning achievement was the Heaven and Hell party we threw that spring. According to Adam, this was “my ticket in.” We replicated scenes from the Sistine chapel throughout the Heaven side of the room which would be later filled with packing peanuts- symbolic of clouds of course. The party was amazing and one of the best nights of my college experience. It was tough seeing our work ripped down the morning after the party during our pledge sponsored clean-up of beer cans and trails of packing peanuts now extending into the yard and street. For the first time however, I realized I could paint on a grand scale. That experience led to me painting party backdrops not only for our fraternity, but for other sororities and fraternities as well throughout my college career.
Adam and I continued to be great friends that semester. Later, I asked him to be my “big brother” that semester. Adam became the closest thing to a brother I have ever known. Two years later, I convinced Adam to join me during the summer to sell books for the Southwestern company. We made a fortune that summer, and learned the art of the sale. His ability to sell anyone at anytime simply amazed me. I was good at the job in that I played the numbers. That summer job, which I eventually did for four summers total, financed my undergraduate education as well as my pickup truck I still own. Adam, however, surpassed me in his ability to sell himself in any situation. After a few years of resort furniture sales, he’s now working towards his MBA at Texas A&M.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about Adam besides his ability to sell is his innate ability to see ideas with potential. His ideas are always legitimate, and insightful. During college he had ideas for parties, which morphed into incredible themes. Now he has ideas to make hotel stays more efficient in the US, much like the pod hotels we’re seeing pop up through Europe. They are currently trickling into NYC. He has an ability to utilize his experiences such as his travels across Europe when he studied abroad in Prague, in order to let his imagination run wild with ideas of influencing our experiences while staying in large cities. From Adam, I’ve learned to let my past experiences shape and influence my ideas for medicine. I’ve learned that those ideas we have as a kid in college can take root, grow and live on through passions for our careers. I now take the time to jot down my ideas and refer back to them to see if they can grow into a solution for problems I see while treating patients in the hospital. Adam had an innate ability to foster his ideas and never let them die. For that influence, I am forever grateful.
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