Arabia Mollette, MD, was raised by a single mother in housing projects in the South Bronx, “where poverty, drugs, alcohol and crime” were nothing unusual. But young Arabia dreamed of bigger things — ever since she was five years old, she wanted to be a doctor. But her path to becaome a doctor was nothing short than a miracle. Just look at her stats:
– Father was addicted to drugs and not there
– Mother was depressed and tried to commit suicide
– She was rapped in public and became a teenage mom
– At only 4 months old, her son was brutally killed by his father
– Her sister was murdered
– She had no money for college
and the list goes on and on. But somehow, some way, she made it.
“Like many people, I grew up in a lot of pain, with a lot of depression,” explains Dr. Mollette to the NY Post. “But I didn’t recognize it for what it was. It just felt normal to me, coming from a family that suffered from substance abuse, domestic violence and horrible poverty.”
By age 15, she was homeless on the streets, sleeping in parks, running with a dangerous crowd and carrying drugs for dealers and sometimes dealing herself.
Her mother, suffering from mental illness, had tried to kill herself. It was something Mollette considered, too.
“As a child, I had thought about committing suicide. You know the song ‘Black Girl Lost’ by Nas? I felt like that, really a black girl lost, because of all the ongoing trauma and tragedy in my family,” Mollette said. “It just seemed that nobody in the world cared about this lost black girl.”
Her mother, realizing she was in no state to parent Mollette, sent the teenager to Peekskill to live with her father, who had just left a rehab facility for drug addiction.
Mollette fell into a romance with a much older man, who eventually began to beat her. She wound up pregnant at 17, trapped in an abusive relationship.
“Like many lost kids, I was looking for love. I’d endured abuse since I was a childhood, physical and sexual assaults. This was what I thought life was,” she said.
On Feb. 19, 1998, her son Jahmeek, who was four months old, was attacked by his father, Artie Holmes. Holmes shook Jahmeek with such force, the infant went into traumatic cardiac arrest and suffered a bruised abdomen, a fractured skill and brain injuries. He died the next day. Holmes, 30 at the time, was sentenced to 22 years in jail.
“The day my son took his last breath, I just sat there and said, ‘This is it,’” said Mollette. “A piece of my soul died that day, and it’s still dead.”
Just shy of 18, Mollette had to be institutionalized for a few days, a period she can’t remember. The months after Jahmeek’s death were a blur. Eventually Mollette — who had turned into an honor student at Peekskill despite the chaos in her personal life — found herself at Pace University.
“I was an alcoholic, I drank all the time. Anything to escape the pain,” she said.
Alone, depressed and not finding relief in therapy, Mollette was expelled from Pace for fighting during her freshman year in 1998.
By 2000, Mollette was ready to try again. She enrolled in Hunter College to get a bachelor’s degree in science and psychology. She found friends who could relate to her traumatic childhood and was finally able to focus on her studies and future career.
But in 2003, just when things were looking up, violence returned to her life when one of her sisters was shot and killed.
It brought all her painful experiences flooding back. This time, however, Mollette was determined to avoid alcohol and seek out therapy — and the entire family went with her. Individually and together, they started to heal.
“Sometimes you don’t make it on that first try, maybe not even the second, third or fourth time, and that’s okay. Maybe it’ll be the next time when it will all come together. You never know, so you just keep trying,” she said.
By 2006, Mollette had her bachelor’s degree, a host of pre-med prerequisites completed at…
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Arabia Mollette, MD, was raised by a single mother in housing projects in the South Bronx, “where poverty, drugs, alcohol and crime” were nothing unusual. But young Arabia dreamed of bigger things — ever since she was five years old, she wanted to be a doctor. But her path to becaome a doctor was nothing short than a miracle. Just look at her stats:
– Father was addicted to drugs and not there
– Mother was depressed and tried to commit suicide
– She was rapped in public and became a teenage mom
– At only 4 months old, her son was brutally killed by his father
– Her sister was murdered
– She had no money for college
and the list goes on and on. But somehow, some way, she made it.
“Like many people, I grew up in a lot of pain, with a lot of depression,” explains Dr. Mollette to the NY Post. “But I didn’t recognize it for what it was. It just felt normal to me, coming from a family that suffered from substance abuse, domestic violence and horrible poverty.”
By age 15, she was homeless on the streets, sleeping in parks, running with a dangerous crowd and carrying drugs for dealers and sometimes dealing herself.
Her mother, suffering from mental illness, had tried to kill herself. It was something Mollette considered, too.
“As a child, I had thought about committing suicide. You know the song ‘Black Girl Lost’ by Nas? I felt like that, really a black girl lost, because of all the ongoing trauma and tragedy in my family,” Mollette said. “It just seemed that nobody in the world cared about this lost black girl.”
Her mother, realizing she was in no state to parent Mollette, sent the teenager to Peekskill to live with her father, who had just left a rehab facility for drug addiction.
Mollette fell into a romance with a much older man, who eventually began to beat her. She wound up pregnant at 17, trapped in an abusive relationship.
“Like many lost kids, I was looking for love. I’d endured abuse since I was a childhood, physical and sexual assaults. This was what I thought life was,” she said.
On Feb. 19, 1998, her son Jahmeek, who was four months old, was attacked by his father, Artie Holmes. Holmes shook Jahmeek with such force, the infant went into traumatic cardiac arrest and suffered a bruised abdomen, a fractured skill and brain injuries. He died the next day. Holmes, 30 at the time, was sentenced to 22 years in jail.
“The day my son took his last breath, I just sat there and said, ‘This is it,’” said Mollette. “A piece of my soul died that day, and it’s still dead.”
Just shy of 18, Mollette had to be institutionalized for a few days, a period she can’t remember. The months after Jahmeek’s death were a blur. Eventually Mollette — who had turned into an honor student at Peekskill despite the chaos in her personal life — found herself at Pace University.
“I was an alcoholic, I drank all the time. Anything to escape the pain,” she said.
Alone, depressed and not finding relief in therapy, Mollette was expelled from Pace for fighting during her freshman year in 1998.
By 2000, Mollette was ready to try again. She enrolled in Hunter College to get a bachelor’s degree in science and psychology. She found friends who could relate to her traumatic childhood and was finally able to focus on her studies and future career.
But in 2003, just when things were looking up, violence returned to her life when one of her sisters was shot and killed.
It brought all her painful experiences flooding back. This time, however, Mollette was determined to avoid alcohol and seek out therapy — and the entire family went with her. Individually and together, they started to heal.
“Sometimes you don’t make it on that first try, maybe not even the second, third or fourth time, and that’s okay. Maybe it’ll be the next time when it will all come together. You never know, so you just keep trying,” she said.
By 2006, Mollette had her bachelor’s degree, a host of pre-med prerequisites completed at…
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Read more https://blackdoctor.org/515203/dr-arabia-mollette-against-all-odds/