Bennie Carson

Ben, also called Bennie by his mother, grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He had an older brother named Curtis. Their mother, Sonya Carson, was married at age thirteen with an education of a third grader. When the boys were young, Sonya husband’s cheated on her breaking their relationship apart. Sonya faced racism, mental break downs, and low income to support the family, but she still had time to be with her children. She never let her children know how difficult things were for them. Instead, she persisted in helping her children become smart and hardworking.
“What grade did you get this time?” said the boy in Ben’s class. Carson hated school since he would always get poor grades and be laughed at. Through the years, his mom would encourage him by saying, “You can become anything you want” or “You’re going to change the world, Bennie.” His mom set standards in the house: only two televisions show a week and required reading of two books. The reading really helped Carson improve, as he gradually got better grades in school. He became interested in science and nature, and his dream was to become a doctor one day. …show more content…
Fitting into cliques and wearing the new clothes that the cool kids wore became his ambition. Trying to be like the popular kids, however, made him lose focus in school, and as result, lowered his grades. This continued for about a year until he joined the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program that his brother also did in high school. Because he joined in the second half of his sophomore year, he only had five semesters instead of the normal six. He determined to do his best and through hard work, he excelled and became the highest ranked student in the program. During this time, he also learned to like classical music and expanded his knowledge on many new