A lot of ground has been gained by the republican candidate hopeful Ben Carson in his run for the White House. Every one of his comments and stances, from his staunch pro-life stance to his recent comments about why he does not believe we should have an Islamic president, have been making the presidential hopeful both friends and enemies on both sides of the political spectrum. Dr. Carson is currently second on the GOP polls, right behind Donald Trump. However, Dr. Carson has gained his followers rather rapidly in the past few weeks, so, who knows, he may be first in the polls in a few weeks.

Dr. Carson was not always the established and world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon that he is today. Carson was born into poverty in the city of Detroit; his father went to jail when he was a young boy, leaving his mother to care for him and his brother. His mother decided that she was not going to let her sons become anything like the world that they lived in. While working two jobs and caring for her sons, she had them both do book reports weekly as well as maintain mandatory study hours.

This was the work ethic that Carson used to further himself out of the place he grew up in. Excelling in school in the fields of sciences and math, while some teachers saw greatness in Carson and wished to see him realize his potential, there were others who didn’t want that because of Carson’s skin color. In his early grade school years, he received the highest achievement award for his school, and a teacher gave a speech directly following his award condemning the white students for their poor performance and letting an “inner city” best them. Carson’s mother then pulled him from the school and placed him into a school she deemed more accepting of his academic prowess.

After graduating undergraduate at Yale University, he went to the University of Michigan Medical School, and then completed his residency at John Hopkins Hospital, focusing on neurosurgery. He became a practicing doctor, eventually becoming the director of John Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Carson reached his pinnacle career achievement when he became the first to find a way to split a pair of conjoined twins who were connected at the head, whose family traveled from Europe just to be seen by Dr. Carson. Early attempts at performing this surgery usually would preface the family by asking “which child would you like to survive?” Dr. Carson was determined not to ask this question, determined to find a solution, and he spent days trying to find that solution. Once Carson figured out exactly what he needed to do to successfully split them (essentially stopping blood flow to the brain, but it’s a lot more complicated than that, so I won’t go into it), he left the operating room after 22 hours of operating to meet the family and ask a question that no one performing the same operation has ever said: “which child would you like to see first?”

The life and legacy of Dr. Carson is one that I have admired ever since I read his biography in the fourth grade, “Gifted Hands” (and again, when it was made into a lifetime movie starring Cuba Gooding Jr). He gave me a true hero, one not in a comic book, a movie, or some religious text. He was someone who was able to escape poverty in a world that said he couldn’t because of where he was born and because of the color of his skin.

Dr. Carson defied the odds to become what he wanted to be, and now, after looking up to him for so long, it almost surreal to see him attempting to run for the presidency.

But even though I admire his life and who he is, his political stances do not exactly align with my own. I do wish Dr. Carson all the luck in his bid for the Republican nomination. I will not say whether or not I will support his presidency, however, I will wholeheartedly say that he will always be someone I look up to.