Fall — 2005

Pedram Rahmanian

Business/Music

“What’s most important for me right now—because of my age—is education. You need education to be able to do anything successfully in life.”

Sometimes, when starting a new endeavor in life, it’s good to kick things off with a clean slate. But for Pedram Rahmanian that new endeavor was life itself. And the ‘slate’ that had been wiped clean was his mind. “I got into a really bad crash five years ago, and I almost died. I was in a coma for two weeks, and when I woke up, my memory was a complete blank,” recalls Pedram. “I had to learn how to talk, how to walk… everything! I was a newborn baby in the body of a 17-year-old. But now I’m living an incredible life, and I’m just extremely pleased with all that I have.”

Pedram, a student with disabilities, remembers the frustration he initially encountered at SMC. “I couldn’t really handle academic classes because I had to learn how to learn. So I got into an acquired brain injury program at SMC, and I slowly got into piano playing, because I was told it was good for the brain.” Slowly, with music and patience and absolute determination, Pedram began to drag himself back from the black hole that nearly engulfed him. “Slowly but surely,” he says, “I’ve reached the level where I’m able to take academic classes and pass them all with good grades.”

The first three rules in Pedram’s ‘playbook’ are ‘attitude, ‘attitude,’ and ‘attitude.’ “This is best time of my life. And you know what? Some people live through these horrible times and they don’t see what’s right in front of them. But I see everything!” says Pedram. “Now I want to go to USC, because that’s my potential. And I want to start a lot of businesses to help the unfortunate—disabled people, homeless people—because if we can’t help other human beings in this world, we’re no better than animals.” Pedram: Welcome back!

Back