For those of us who are getting the hang of this whole ‘adulting’ business, we’re quickly beginning to realise that some of our childhood dreams and ambitions may not necessarily tally up with what reality has in store for us. So we wind up doing pretty ordinary jobs, earning a pretty ordinary salary, and shrug. That’s a pretty decent adult life as far as things are concerned, right?
Well, if you ask Jonny Kim, having an average 9-to-5 job isn’t going to keep him satisfied. In fact, since being born, Jonny has gone on to have an incredibly decorated career, as indicated by his achievements on NASA‘s official site. We’ll explain the NASA bit in a second.
Raised in the United States, Jonny had a pretty typical childhood and adolescence, but when he was of age, he decided to join the Navy Seals. Starting off as a seaman recruit, he then underwent the extremely physically taxing 2 years Seal training program and became a full-fledged Navy Seal, according to Tales of Awesomeness. That meant that he got deployed to the frontlines in Iraq as a member of Seal Team 3.
As a Navy Seal, he took on the responsibility of combat medic, sniper, navigator, and point man for SEAL Team 3, and was deployed over 100 times between 2006 and 2008. For his efforts, he was awarded a Silver Star and a Bronze Star with a Combat “V”
It was in 2006 when he was deployed to the field that Jonny became inspired to take on medicine as his next choice of career after his time with the Navy Seals. He said that the helplessness of watching one of your own team members lie injured left a profound impact on him.
“Seeing firsthand how the surgeon was there to save lives and limbs, and even to save the function of some people’s limbs — just looking at that inspired me.”
Which led him to apply for medical school through a program affiliated with the Navy Seals, and wound up being accepted into Harvard Medical School. Graduating in 2016, he began his Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
But that still didn’t satisfy him, so guess what? Jonny applied to join the NASA astronaut candidate program, something which NASA does only once every four years. Out of the thousands of applicants, he was one of twelve that was selected, and will be undergoing training before being sent to space.
Oh, and one more thing: Jonny is only 35-years-old.
With such a passion and drive to achieve so much in life, we wish for nothing but the best for Jonny on his future endeavors, Earthbound or spacebound!
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