StoryCorps at SHC: Rickey Burks & Joshua Simpson

Rickey Burks (RB): Growing up in East Palo Alto was really rough. Everybody was searching for opportunity. And as a child, you just want to have fun, but when everybody is searching for opportunity, you tend to grow up a little faster than you supposed to. And so it was a struggle every day. I lost a few friends because of the violence out there, and it was one point in time in my life where life expectancy for a Black man was 18 years old, and I was extremely happy to turn 18.

Joshua Simpson (JS): What kept you pushing? What kept you motivated?

RB: I wanted more out of life, I have will and determination, and I never gave up on myself. And sometimes you got to go through something in order to get where  you need to be. At one point in time in my life, it was so hard to move forward. It was like, why can't get ahead? Why can't keep a job? Why nobody give me a chance? And so I was calling the temp agency, and then a lady by the name of Vicky at the temp agency, she say, "I got something for you. We got this job at Stanford Hospital, and if you want it, I'll send you out there, but don't make me look bad." And I'm like, "I'm not going to blow this." I was looking for opportunity and when I first came to Stanford, I had this look on my face, and people probably thought it was like, "Hey, he looks mean," but it was like determination and will.

And I was focused. And there was a patient transporter that was working. I think her name is Denise, and she came to me. She said, "Hey, you new here?" I said, "Yeah." She said, "Baby, you got a smile around here." And so I was like, "Man, I need to work on my people skills. I don't have no people skills." So I was like, "I'm going to say hi to everybody in here." So the first day, I walked around, I said hi to everybody, and maybe only two people said hi back to me. The same people that didn't say hi back, I said hi to them every day, every day until they started saying hi back. But by me saying hi every day and then eventually getting hi's back, I worked on my people skills and it made me a happier person.

JS: Right. Because I noticed walking around, you like one of the most famous people around here now, like everybody, "Hey, where's Rickey? Hey?"

RB: Yeah

JS: So what are you proudest of in your life?

RB: I'm proud of the person I became. I went through a lot in life. It wasn't easy, but you just got to wake up every morning and love who you are. And if you love who you are, then you know where you're going. And if you know where you're going, then there's a beautiful ending.

Produced by Stanford Health Care with interviews recorded in collaboration with StoryCorps, a national nonprofit whose mission is to preserve and share humanity's stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world www.storycorps.org

Sound Editor: Emily Hsiao

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