My Improbable Journey

My Improbable Journey is a personal story of perseverance, of unflinching love for family, and of unrelenting desire to rescue the family from their destiny. This chronicles the life of an eight-year-old boy living in the remote and desolate tin-mining town high in the Bolivian Andes in the 1950s. His only window to the outside world were magazine publications, shortwave radio, and what he learned in school.Then he suddenly suffers a fortuitus childhood accident that sends him to the local hospital for two months. It is during this time he discovers a completely new world, a fascinating world of medicine that, unbeknownst to him, shaped his future forever. From that point on, he plotted in his mind his path to achieve the lofty goal of becoming a medical doctor. This story also brings out a glimpse of the landlocked country of Bolivia with all its endemic poverty, revolutions, and social unrest. You will experience the author's closeness to actual historical events of these social struggles. It also details the eventual transition to America in his quest to achieve his goals. To his amazement, he discovers the profound generosity of a welcoming new family, his American family who received him with open arms and made it possible to complete his journey.This work is a tribute and celebration to my adopted American family for their generosity and humanity.

-- Sebastian C. Tapia, MD