FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — Dr. James Harris is going viral on social media. Not for his medical advice. But for his life story.
“I was raised in poverty by my grandmother, who was disabled,” says Harris, who was born in Fresno.
His story is one of overcoming hardship to inspire others.
“I could identify the smell of crack cocaine when I was probably maybe five or six years old,” says Harris. “There were people coming and going, family members under the influence, including my own father. Being afraid of your own father and having him not being able to recognize you at times when he was high, that was always a scary thing.”
The fear was enough to keep him from using the drugs, but not enough to stay away from the lucrative side.
“I saw the people who were making money were the drug dealers that were taking people’s money and robbing people and stealing cars. And that’s the path that I went down during my teenage years,” he says.
He remembers one close call, as police were about to catch him driving a stolen car—with his then-pregnant girlfriend (and now wife). He was just 15.
“That was the last time I ever took a car,” he says.
He struggled in high school—failing classes his first two years at McLane High School.
He later shifted to continuation, in what is now the Ted C. Wills Community Center.
The place provided a glimmer—no, a ray—of hope.
“I met a counselor there who kind of pointed me in the right direction. Mr. Henry Ray,” he says. “I don’t really know what he saw in me, to be honest.”
He was aimless, but always kept a thought in the back of his mind.
“I was raised by my grandmother, and she had heart failure. I saw the doctors as being pretty cool because they’re like the ones that were keeping her alive,” Harris said.
Ray would open his eyes to a world beyond Harris’ surroundings. One of higher education, scholarships, financial aid. Something Harris always considered out of reach.
“I didn’t have a strong foundation,” Harris says. “I didn’t even know how to add fractions.”
Even so, he took a risk and enrolled at Fresno State, with support from the Educational Opportunity Program on campus.
He worked three jobs to support his dream, and a growing family.
“I had to get a lot of tutoring and deprive myself of sleep,” he says. “Eventually I figured it out. I started doing well. I got good grades. I started getting a lot of A’s.”
The goal was to get into medical school. But grades alone weren’t enough. His grit made the difference.
“Someone on the admissions committee saw some potential in me based on my personal statement,” he says. “I was very upfront about my history and I shared some of my shortcomings and how I accomplished getting over those things.”
He attended UCLA Medical School.
And later completed a residency at Johns Hopkins University, one of the most prestigious medical schools in the country
He is now an associate professor of surgery and chair of surgery for one of the university’s hospitals.
It’s a long way from the streets of Central Fresno, as he chronicles in his book “Not who I once was: My Unusual Path To Becoming A Surgeon.”
While the message of resilience is relevant for teenagers, the book is especially geared to teachers, counselors and administrators.
“I think that the problem is a lot of people will judge kids thinking, ‘Oh, they don’t care. Look, they’re getting in trouble, they’re ditching.’ But they don’t understand the home dynamics. They don’t understand what they’ve been raised around. They have no idea,” Harris says.
“I’m sharing my faults and my story so that those who have made those mistakes know that this isn’t going to define you.”
He spent 25 years searching for Mr. Ray.
The two finally connected this week, after Harris posted a plea on social media.
“If you didn’t take that chance on me I wouldn’t be where I am now,” Harris told Ray.
Ray replied, “You were worth a chance.”
Harris promised to send him a copy of the book—after all, Ray’s in it.
He hopes his story inspires others to see beyond their current circumstances.
“There are some things that I really would want to change, but the reality is sometimes some of the hardest things that we go through is what makes us who we are,” Harris says. “I wouldn’t want to change that path because in some ways, God allowed those things to happen and I learned from it.”
And those tough lessons, mistakes and sacrifices have already changed the course of his family’s future.
His eldest son is an English teacher, and his daughter works with him at Johns Hopkins.
And his middle son is defying the odds after suffering a traumatic brain injury at the age of 17. Some doctors feared he may not live to see 18. He turned 30 in August and can now sing.