Annual Pub 2023 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 55
SUMMER 2023 MAGAZINE
P H O T O : J O S H H A W K I N S / U N LV
S
u٠恩ce it to say that Linsey Golding9s early
life isn’t the stuff of dreams.
California’s social services and the court
system decided the little girl would be
better off in foster care than with her
biological parents. Today, after being placed in four
foster homes – she was adopted by her great aunt and
uncle at the age of 12 – the 25-year-old woman can tell
you that foster care frequently falls short of the hopedfor caring needed to nurture a child. While some foster
parents are loving, she says others are physically or
emotionally abusive or both – and some of them are in
it only for the money.
Today, she can also tell you she9s enjoying her 昀rst year
at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV.
She says how she got to this time and place isn’t
something that can easily be mapped out. What she
does know is that a love for learning, hard work, therapy,
and just plain good luck made the difference.
LINSEY GOLDING
Prior to her adoption by distant relatives in Fallon, NV,
Golding says she didn’t do well in elementary school. “I
had to move around a lot while I was in foster care, and
it really affected my grades. It always seemed like I was
attending court hearings.”
The stability brought by middle-class parents – her
adopted father was an electronics technician and her
mother a purchaser for defense contractors – brought
about what she calls her most positive moment before
high school. “After I was adopted and stopped attending
court hearings, I 昀nally got my 昀rst perfect attendance
award. It was something so small to others but meant
the world to me.”
Though she did well in school – she was co-valedictorian
of her class – she never felt comfortable. “When I was in
foster care, I had never learned how to socialize properly
with other kids because I moved around so much and
still hadn9t quite 昀gured it out in high school. Each foster
family had its own set of rules. I kept to myself a lot and
schoolwork was something I was good at, something
that made me feel good. I just never learned how to make
conversation easily or how to respond to social cues,
but years of therapy helped me a lot from where I was.”
By the time of her 2015 high school graduation, Golding
didn’t have a real idea of what kind of career she wanted,
so she enlisted in the Air Force. “I didn’t have any money
for college and couldn’t see taking out loans when I didn’t
know what kind of career I wanted.” Also unsure of what
she’d excel at in the Air Force, she ended up taking a
position that was open: diagnostic imaging technologist.
It turned out she enjoyed carrying out the X-ray,
mammography, and computerized tomography (CT)
scan process for patients. Talking with other technicians
about their mission, along with addressing the concerns
of patients, helped her open up socially. While on active
duty, she completed a bachelor’s degree in health
science, with all As, through a Purdue University distance
learning program. At that point, she didn’t know whether
to go to medical school or to be trained as a physician
assistant.
During her work, largely on the East Coast, she often
shadowed doctors to get a better sense of what they did.
On one occasion, she recalls how a physician saved a
veteran’s pregnancy with a cervical cerclage procedure.
“It was medicine that did this, and I wanted to someday
lead a team to directly help patients.”
Stationed at one point in Washington, D.C., Golding was
sent on Memorial Day to Arlington National Cemetery
to help honor those who had sacri昀ced their lives for
their country.
“I was sent to place a ribbon on the headstone of a certain
soldier who had died during Operation Iraqi Freedom
when I came across his mother and stepfather … She
invited me to sit, and what was initially intended to be
a brief visit turned into a 昀ve-hour-long conversation
about the hopes and dreams and the legacy that her
son, Michael, had left despite his young age of 19. After
learning that day about the shortage of physicians
deployed and the direct consequences service members
faced because of it, I knew that I wanted to be a
physician, to make sure less people both in the military
and in civilian life will end up like Michael.”
Golding found transitioning to civilian life from the
military a couple of years ago very di٠恩cult.
“I needed to take science courses that are required for
medical school, but when I came out of the military in
the middle of the pandemic, social isolation was at an
all-time high. Fortunately, I was able to 昀nd sources for
help through the Veterans Administration.”
Golding, who’s still unsure about which medical specialty
she’ll pursue, knows becoming a physician is what she
must do.
“Despite having met so many amazing, fascinating,
and remarkable patients as a radiologic technologist, I
always felt limited. My interactions were very short and
surface-level. I always had the desire to dig deeper, be at
the forefront of patients’ journeys, and be actively part
of their treatment.”
It was the kind of good luck she needed.
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