ASHLAND — Jason Waddell came out of high school in 1995 without much ambition, even labeling himself an “Average Joe.”

While he took advanced placement classes at Raceland-Worthington High School, and did well in them, school didn’t exactly motivate him.

“I was never too serious about much of anything in high school — academics, sports, girls or anything,” he said.

As a matter of fact, Waddell didn’t even attend college the first year after he graduated from high school. His father helped get him a job at the post office in Ashland.

“My father said are you going to college or going to work? I told them (his parents, Lawrence and Beverly Waddell) I was kind of burned out on school, I think I’ll go to work,” Waddell said. “I worked at the post office for a year, year and a half, and decided I don’t want to do this the rest of my life.”

What Waddell eventually found was a passion in biological science, which then translated into the medical field, which then translated into him becoming a neurosurgeon — one of only 3,500 in the United States.

The path took him from night classes at Ohio University Southern in Ironton, to the University of Kentucky, to Pikeville College, to Midwestern University Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Bloomington, Ill., for residency training. He visited other exciting cities on his path to becoming a specialized surgeon.

Today, almost 20 years since leaving high school and “going to work,” he is working on a one-year fellowship, with specific training for brain tumors and spinal tumors, at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla. — one of the top research cancer centers in the world.

Spine tumors are of primary interest to Waddell, which is why he decided on the fellowship instead of going directly to work.

“The reason I did it is I wanted a little more expertise,” he said.

He has been intrigued by the hands-on medicine that neurosurgery provides. A class in gross anatomy, where colleagues work on and explore a cadaver during the semester, won him over.

“The central nervous system is what I enjoyed the most,” he said. “Everything fell into place.”

Neurosurgeons, he said, have to be “smart, good on your feet, good with your hands and have a lot of drive, a lot of everything. With neurosurgery, a simple mistake can paralyze someone. Certain types of personalities wouldn’t work out for neurosurgery.”

The future is wide open for Waddell, who is also a newlywed. His wife, the former Meagan Elizabeth Kozlesky, is a professional dancer who recently tried out for the Radio City Rockettes and made it to the final cut. She was No. 17 and they took a dozen. Meagan is a sales clerk for Saks Fifth Avenue.

They met in Lexington and married on June 9.

Waddell, 35, was never far from home in his studies. He attended night classes at OUS, then transferred to nearby UK. His medical degree came from Pikeville College, which he said was “probably the best decision I made.”

He calls Pikeville “a unique place,” far different from where he was from despite being only 90 miles away.

“I grew up in eastern Kentucky, and even going to Pikeville for the first time was an eye-opening experience. There’s one way in and one way out. It’s a totally different civilization.”

But Waddell said he met a lot of great people and learned from great professors from all over the country.

“All the medical textbooks are the same,” he said. “It’s up to the person reading it and how you apply yourself. The advantage of being in Pikeville is I had no distractions. When I got out of class, the only option was to go get something to eat and then go read. There was no entertainment or nightlife.”

Nothing was ordinary for Waddell, who took 4 1/2 years to graduate from UK with a four-year degree and then had to delay a year before applying for medical school.

“I wasn’t on the every-year cycle. The application process was not in the right order.”

He applied to only three medical schools — UK, Louisville and Pikeville.

“Pikeville called me back pretty quickly and offered me a spot,” he said.

Waddell talked again to UK officials, figuring that’s where he would end up, but Pikeville kept looking like the right decision for him.

“I may even consider going back for a few years to work at Pikeville Medical Center, although I haven’t talked with anyone yet,” he said.

Waddell said it wasn’t until his senior year of undergraduate that he began to be an “overachiever” in school. “Up until then I was more just an Average Joe,” he said.

But today this “Average Joe” also has doctor in front of his name, a testament to what hard work can achieve.

Would his friends and former teachers be surprised at the transformation?

“Some of them would be and some of them wouldn’t be,” he said. “If you went back to my elementary teachers, they’d say they’re not a bit surprised. My high school teachers would say they were surprised. I was more of a troublemaker.”

But now this “troublemaker” will be a lifechanger — and sometimes even a lifesaver — as a neurosurgeon.

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.