I'm David Rooney I come from humble beginnings I was a former cryptologist was a two sport athlete the United States Naval Academy I used to be poor and homeless lived in a car at one point did a few things and then now I'm a surgeon so I wear scrubs on a daily basis when I look myself in the mirror ain't no [ __ ] way that's me no
[ __ ] way I see a kid who used to be poor and lived in a car and I slept and the right rear passenger SE to sleep with my legs up either cramped um there's [ __ ] stuff everywhere all of our [ __ ] is just in this [ __ ] car basketball was my way out basketball was like survival right basketball was the goal I had to get to college to get the [ __ ] out of my house
to get the [ __ ] out of my situation I needed basketball to survive basketball was everything basketball was my life and being in college meant that I can better myself I can better my family and basketball was my way there I think about academics cuz nobody ever told me I can be smart and go to college basketball is what I saw and then my grandmother died and I lost my
definition I lost the reason why I was [ __ ] playing cuz I was trying to keep a promise that I would take care of my grandmother and my mom and my grandmother died and then my mom was suffering and basketball no longer made sense basketball was no longer important but I lost my identity and I didn't know who I was and then so I end up joining a nuclear
power program and then end up in cryptology did that for a few years and then I realized I just wasn't living what I was intending to do and I made it to med school so for me surgery's everything I can affect the outcome of someone dying in front of me and I'm going to do whatever it takes to [ __ ] help them it allows me to be in their
moment of need the person that won't let them down the scrubs don't [ __ ] matter no matter if I was going to electrician or I'm an artist I'm going to try to be the best you can't judge a book by his cover right I've been told I was a dumbass for way too long and I believed it man cuz I thought I wasn't worth anything because I was poor I didn't have anything I couldn't cut my
hair had dirty clothes I want to be able to sort of change how everyone views people who are homeless and like I hope that they know writing people off especially with they're young like you just can't [ __ ] do that you don't know what people are going to be I might have been the next President Obama I might have been the next Surgeon General
I might have been whoever right and they were trying to write me off so what I'm hoping that people see this and they take the chance and they let the person who is atypical into the program into their office into that job that they think they can do that they're applying for and they give them the opportunity to keys and the opportunity just to succeed [Music]