Homeless to Hopkins

Title: Homeless to Hopkins
Author: Christopher L. Smith
Major Themes: Doctors, Johns Hopkins, Mormons, Mental Illness, Homelessness
Synopsis: How could a homeless teenager from a dysfunctional family ever make anything of his life?

I have always enjoyed memoirs. It is always interesting to see what people have to say about their own lives and what they consider to be important. When I saw Homeless to Hopkins, it attracted my attention because it was such an unusual title. How many homeless people end up working at Johns Hopkins?

Christopher grew up in a dysfunctional Morman family of 11 children in various towns and cities in Utah. With a father who couldn’t hold down a job for long, and a mother who struggled with mental illness, anger, and eating disorders, Christopher and his siblings not only had to cope with frequent moves and a mother’s volatile nature, but they also had to care for each other and work to keep the family going. When their parents’ poor decisions caused the entire family to become homeless for several years, it appeared as though Christopher would never be able to make anything of his life. 

Christopher determined that he would break the cycle he found himself caught in. He spent a couple of years serving as a missionary, and then found a way to go to college. He decided to become a doctor and put himself through medical school, even though he also got married and started a family during that time! Over and over again he found himself sucked into his mother’s drama and guilt trips, however; how could he break free from her negativity and control? Many other events brought drama and turmoil into his life, but he remained focused and met his goal.

I found Homeless to Hopkins quite interesting. Several scenes were especially touching, such as the time when Christopher was a young boy and was invited to spend the night with a friend. In the morning, the friend’s father served pancakes and ice cream for breakfast, saying this was a family tradition for special occasions. I was also impressed with his decision not to study on Sundays and how this impacted his life. Overall, though this book is not the most gripping story I’ve come across lately, it was a very good and inspiring read, and a fairly easy one—except for some of the subject matter. When the story of a hard life is being told, some of it is not easy to read, but the ending makes it worth reading the hard parts.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

WARNING: Chapter 1: Brief description of a patient brought to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds. Chapter 2: Baby drowns. Chapter 3: Suicide attempt. Chapter 6: Suicidal thoughts. Chapter 11: heckuva lawsuit. Chapter 12: Mother wants to commit suicide. Chapter 15: Drinking binge to numb emotional pain. Chapter 17: Argument about euthanasia, word “damn” used twice. Chapter 19: Kiss. Chapter 31: Woman needs resuscitation on the operating table.

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