The Byte: Erica Elliott ~ Climbing Mountains & Saving Lives!
Dr. Erica shares a funny story of magic-of how she was rejected by Stanford Medical, and at her wits end, using her cross country skills as an incentive, she somehow convinced a recruiter to travel to her part of the woods, in Colorado, to learn how to ski-oh, and also to allow her to attend their medical school!
Transcript
Greetings,
Everyone,
And welcome back to another episode of the podcast.
This one is a little groundbreaking because I've invited a former guest back to tell more of her spectacular stories,
And I'm going to welcome back Erica Elliott for this episode.
You might remember her stories before,
Particularly the one about what happened when she saw that werewolf that one time.
Well,
I recently had the pleasure of reading Erica's next book,
From Mountains to Medicine,
Scaling the Heights in Search of My Calling.
And I have to tell you,
I was reading it and I thought,
Oh my gosh,
How did I not know this about Erica?
Oh my gosh,
This woman is actually a miracle herself.
Among the many stories she tells in this book,
Which frankly I could not put down,
It is so good,
Is that she has summited so many mountains in the world.
I thought,
How did I not know this?
My favorite is the one where she reaches the top with her team.
They all kind of get altitude sickness,
They're swollen,
They barely make it to base camp.
Erica discovers that another two climbers that she knew,
They haven't come down yet,
They haven't returned,
And they're not going to.
They're kind of already planning that they're going to die on the mountain.
And Erica says,
No,
Get out of my way,
I'll take care of it.
She hikes back up the mountain and she rescues these two men.
I am just in awe at Erica's bravery,
Her indomitable quest for adventure,
And the way that she just takes life in and engages in life with wholeheartedness.
In the teaser,
You'll hear a little bit of how she wanted to go to med school at Stanford,
But she couldn't afford to actually go out there.
And so in her true Erica style,
She finds a solution and she deals with it and she makes it happen.
And I think that speaks volumes to who Erica is.
She is unstoppable,
She's fierce,
And she is here for the adventure.
So now here's the very next episode of the Bite-Sized Blessings podcast.
Very truthful,
I'm not full of artifice,
I'm very transparent.
So I said,
You know,
I can't afford it.
I don't have any savings.
And,
You know,
It'd be very costly because I'd have to,
You know,
Buy some nice outfit and then stay in a hotel and plane fare and everything.
Do you think you could come out here and interview me?
And there was no answer.
And that's when I talked really fast.
I said,
I realized,
Oh,
I think I said something wrong.
And so I talked really fast and said,
Well,
You know,
If you came out here,
You know,
I'm a former outbound instructor and I have all this gear and I could teach you how to cross-country ski and I would provide everything,
The lunch and the backpacks and the gear.
And we could go to Rocky Mountain National Park and ski in there.
And then have our lunch on a log and with the sun shining down while you interview me and then silence.
So then I decided I was going to get my master's degree and the studies were so easy,
I didn't have to really do much.
So I decided I was going to take some of the courses that I missed out in college because I tested out of them.
So I signed up at University of Colorado for Advanced Placement Biology and Chemistry.
And of course,
I was the oldest person in the class.
They were all like very young.
And I discovered that they all were pre-med students.
And I was the only one who wasn't pre-med.
And I that's when I had an awakening that that's another miracle that this that I took those courses because I discovered,
Oh,
My God,
These guys aren't even that smart and they're going to be our future doctors.
Oh,
My God,
I can do this.
It's about memorizing.
There's no critical thinking.
There's no saying,
Well,
How do you know that?
And why doesn't that do that?
And and no questioning.
It was all about memorizing and doing great on standardized tests.
I said,
Oh,
My God,
I can do that.
That's easy.
I can memorize.
I'm a good memorizer.
And when I was in England in first grade,
I memorized a whole poem and I didn't even know what it meant.
I didn't even know what the words meant,
But I memorized it.
I was good at that.
I thought,
Oh,
My God,
I I've gone 10 years and it was right in front of me the whole time.
Then I was told I was too old to go to med school.
Oh,
I know.
And that part of the book was so frustrating to read and so annoying,
You know,
From this perspective,
Right,
From where we are in this time,
So frustrating and annoying to read that this this person says,
Oh,
No,
No,
No,
No.
Almost like he patted you on the head and he's like,
No,
No,
No,
No,
No.
Nice little pipe dream there.
But that's not going to happen.
And you just it gets your head up and you're just like,
Oh,
Yeah,
I'm going to show you.
And then you have I mean,
You meet I love that you talk to the Stanford guy,
The guy who accepts people into Stanford.
And you said,
I mean,
I was reading your book and you're like,
Hey,
Why don't you come to Denver to see if I'm a good fit for your med school?
And I thought,
What?
Who does that?
I mean,
What?
Wait a second.
And then you talk to someone and they said,
Oh,
My God,
He's never going to come.
Nobody ever does that.
And you say,
No,
I'm going to teach you cross-country skiing.
And the guy from Stanford comes to Colorado.
I told you I was in the Peace Corps and made one hundred and twenty dollars a month.
This on the phone,
The admissions count.
And this is after the counselor,
College counselor,
Told me to forget it.
You know,
Nobody would ever accept me.
And so I applied to three places and Stanford was against all odds.
I get a call from admissions and they say,
We'd like to interview you.
We'd like you to fly out on such and such date.
And I didn't know the rules of behavior.
Thank God.
Sometimes it's good.
You don't know the rules because then you wouldn't get anything done.
And so.
And I'm very truthful,
I'm not full of artifice,
I'm very transparent.
So I said,
You know,
I can't afford it.
I don't have any savings.
And,
You know,
It would be very costly because I'd have to,
You know,
Buy some nice outfit and then stay in a hotel and plane fare and everything.
Do you think you could come out here and interview me?
And then there was no answer.
And that's when I talked really fast.
I said,
I realized,
Oh,
I think I said something wrong.
And so I talked really fast and said,
Well,
You know,
If you came out here,
You know,
I'm a former hourbound instructor and I have all this gear and I could teach you how to cross-country ski and and I would provide everything,
The lunch and the backpacks and the gear.
And we could go to Rocky Mountain National Park and ski in there and then have our lunch on a log.
And with the sun shining down while you interview me and then silence.
And then he says,
I'll get back with you.
And then my classmates got so upset with me.
They said,
Why don't you follow the rules?
He's never going to call you back.
You blew it.
You blew it.
You can just borrow money,
Get out alone and buy some nice clothes and pay for the airfare in your hotel,
For God's sakes.
Well,
He did call me back and he said he asked his supervisor what happened.
And they read all my information and they decided they wanted one percent or I can't remember,
10 percent of their student population to be very different and out of the box because it it's like breeding.
You breed another thing and you get a new thing.
And so so he came out and he said it's the best interview he'd ever had.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Bite-Sized Blessings podcast and I'd like to thank my returning guest,
The absolutely unflappable Dr.
Erica Elliott,
For agreeing to come back to the show and tell more of her fabulous stories.
Thank you to everyone who listens to this podcast and as well,
Thanks to those of you who have left a rating or written a little review.
Thank you for listening.
And here's my one request.
Be like Dr.
Erica.
Be unstoppable.
I mean,
Come on.
This woman just kind of sets her mind to something and then goes and does it.
And I don't know if you remember,
But the first time I interviewed her,
She talked about the head injury she sustained during her life and how that hasn't even stopped her.
I mean,
This is one formidable human being we're talking about.
So be like Dr.
Erica,
See mountains that you must climb,
Dream of adventures that you absolutely are going to go on and then think of your life and imagine what you will into existence.
The only one who is holding you back is you.
So whatever you dream,
Whatever you envision,
Whatever you imagine in the adventure that is your life,
Be like Dr.
Erica and then go out,
Go out and take a great big bite out of life and have adventures from dawn until dusk.
