David Wilson started his application letter to the Internal Medicine Residency program at UT Medical Center with this sentence: "The evening of Feb 5, 2008 revealed the frailty of life to me like never before."
Wilson believes he's living out his purpose after surviving the Super Tuesday Tornado outbreak of 2008.
The memory of that day is vivid for Wilson, even 10 years later.
"I think about it every day. You roll over out of bed and my legs are all scared up and it's something I think about all the time," Wilson said.
He was a freshman on the soccer team at Union University at the time. That day, an EF-4 Tornado destroyed much of the campus.
Wilson was left with six other friends buried underneath 20 feet of concrete and steel rubble.
He was rescued after being trapped for six hours. He suffered severe injuries and his recovery process was no easy feat.
"I was in a wheelchair for almost a year," he said.
Wilson took his survival as a sign from above that he would become a doctor to help others.
"I guess it was just kind of impressed on me that god put me there for a reason and that reason was to encourage people," he said.
He graduated medical school and applied to the residency program at UT Medical Center.
"I opened up his application, saw that he was local, that just adds a little more excitement, as soon as I started reading his personal statement ... I was hooked," said Sissy Ensor, the Resident Coordinator at UT.
Wilson's letter landed him his residency.
"This kid has walked away from an EF-4, and it's unheard of," Ensor said.
In his own words, Wilson knows what it's like on the other side of the bed rail.
"I guess, now that I know more about my circumstances then, it's even more of a miracle to me that I'm able to do what I do now," he said.
Wilson also co-founded Steps 2 Hope, a non profit that helps young adults who are immobile from traumatic events by building homes or making modifications to their home at no cost.