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When Peter Kaminski was six-years old, his mother ran away from home with a prizefighter, leaving Peter and his father, an immigrant shoemaker, to fend for themselves. From that moment, Peter's life became an uphill battle.
Growing up in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Peter learned how to work hard and sacrifice at an early age. While his friends were playing little league baseball, taking music lessons, and swimming, Peter was busy working in his father's shoe repair shop.
When he became older, Peter's responsibilities in the shoe shop increased because of his father's poor health. Although he was athletic, energetic, and popular, Peter had to forego participation in high school sports, dating, and many other normal teenage activities because of his responsibilities at home and in his father's business.
From an early age, Peter dreamed of one day becoming a doctor. Intelligent, industrious, and motivated, he appeared to possess all the prerequisites the study of Medicine required.
Upon graduating from high school, Peter decided to attend nearby King's College so he could remain at home and continue to help his father. As America waged war in Vietnam and redefined itself through the turbulent 1960's, Peter quickly discovered that his uphill battle through life was to continue.
While in college, Peter learned that getting into medical school would require a near-perfect academic performance, something he was unable to achieve because of the time he spent working in his father's shoe shop instead of studying. He also learned about the favoritism given to the children of physicians, minority students, and politically-endorsed students by many medical school admissions committees.
Against overwhelming odds, Peter fought to make his dream of getting into medical school come true. Through his epic struggle, he relied on his father's confidence, the love of his college sweetheart, and his poetry, which allowed him to express his love, vent his frustrations, and keep alive the hope of following in the footsteps of his literary hero, Yuri Zhivago, the poet-doctor.
After applying to medical school for a number of years and reading multiple rejection letters, Peter was finally accepted at the Keystone Medical College in Philadelphia. Although getting into medical school was a dream come true, Peter would eventually realize that his medical education was just another segment of his uphill journey through life.
With the help of his wife, Lori, and fellow Keystone students, Nickie Moretti, Freddy Freud, and the Reverend Big Bernie, Peter navigated the hills and valleys of medical education, gaining much along the way and losing more than he realized. Forced to deal with his father's failing health, the adverse effects of medical education on his marriage, and the unexpected and untimely occurrences that life routinely imposes on noble pursuits, Peter continued to chart his uphill course from one hospital, one patient, and one conflict to the next.
Peter learned many things in high school, college, and his father's shoe shop that prepared him for medical school. Unfortunately, nothing ever prepared him for the unusual practices, fractured personalities, and unique patients he would encounter at Keystone.
A keystone is the most important stone in an arch. Similarly, Keystone Medical College was the most important building block in Peter's medical education.
So, on May 24, 1978, the night before his graduation from medical school, Peter Kaminski would like to tell you his story. If you have the time, don't mind hearing some original poetry, and have no objections to laughter or tears, just pull up a chair and listen to the tale of one man's dream - and what it cost.
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