Episode 29: Mark Brombacher
September 23, 2018
The urge to grow has always been a characteristic of mine and I have always strived to find things that enable this. The past two years of my life have presented plenty of opportunities for me to grow more than the prior 22 years combined.
I had a pretty “vanilla” upbringing. I always struggle with the question, “tell us something interesting about yourself”; my childhood and adolescence were pretty plain. I grew up in a complete household with my mom, dad, sister and my two brothers. We all had our health, and there were very few bumps along the way. However, two years ago things started to go off the rails.
I would say the first real “hardship” I faced was the realization that I wouldn’t be able to go straight from undergrad at Miami (Ohio) to medical school. It was no one’s fault but mine. I had slacked off and not excelled academically as many of my peers had. Yet, my privileged upbringing had left me feeling entitled. Following graduation, I moved back home and had to grapple with the introspection that came along with my first defeat; I was left questioning my self-worth and my character. I accepted a job as an ED tech at the local hospital and made the decision that I needed this; I had to learn to move forward after hardship like so many people do. I developed an amazing support system with my coworkers that really helped me through that time when my girlfriend (now wife) couldn’t be with me, since she went to school in Michigan.
I worked hard and gleaned as much wisdom from that job as I could, and then in March of 2017 I received my acceptance to NYMC. I was back on top of the world as I could see it, but I guess I lost sight of the humility and discipline I had worked that year to develop. In that same month after celebrating my acceptance with friends, I made a series of bad decisions that resulted in me getting into a serious accident, which jeopardized everything I worked for. Nothing can prepare you for something like that. I really went to a dark place the following months. As the school went through an extensive review process of my worthiness as a student, I went through a similar review of my worthiness as a person. I never would have made it through those months had I not had the support of so many people back home.
NYMC decided to take a chance on me, but I don’t really know in those first few months of school if I ever allowed myself to accept that I deserved a chance. I had been removed from the support system I had built back home and now I had a huge skeleton in my closet that I knew would follow me with every interaction I had here. What I hadn’t accounted for is the love and understanding that I found in every person here at our school. Whether people knew of my circumstances or not, the support I found through our NYMC family was un-waivering and it really helped me to find the courage to give myself a chance again.
Last year was a hard year for my family, just as we were moving past my accident, loss and different hardships seemed to keep piling up. However, having learned how to seek support and persevere, I kept my head held high and leaned on those around me. I was lucky enough to marry the love of my life over the summer and she’s now living with me in Grasslands I. She was always the other half of my support system, and I’m so excited to now have her here with my NYMC family. Although I think about my mistakes and failures every day, I’ve made the decision to move forward and I want everyone here to know that they’ve helped me to not let my mistakes define me.
5 Most Recently Played Artists on Spotify (Apple Music for me):
Vancouver Sleep Clinic, Mumford and Sons, Mat Kearney, The Piano Guys, and Ben Rector
If you could have any superpower, which one would you choose?
Since I’ve always been some distance away from someone that I love (girlfriend, family, friends, etc.) I would have to say that teleportation would be pretty awesome.
Pick something or someone from NYMC to give a shoutout to!
My old roommates (Chris, Ryan, Mendel, and I GUESS you can count Phil), although it’s pretty awesome living with my wife, I do miss the old apartment and how easy it was to just hangout and chill with them.
If someone wanted to talk to you, they should lead with…
How’s the stock market doing today?/Have you seen the news about [insert company name here]? (I actually originally wanted to be a stockbroker)