I’m originally from Houston, the land of astronauts, pollution, and delicious tex-mex. As the youngest in my family, I’m known for my crazy ideas and stubbornness. They know that if I decide to do something, there’s no changing my mind. I have recently completed my second marathon and have completed various triathlons and half marathons. As much as I have a competitive spirit, I enjoy spontaneously breaking out into dance, baking into frenzy, and eluding everything to Harry Potter. I am in love with my Creator. I am undeserving and blessed by the grace He offers me.

As of Fall 2010, I am a second year at THE University of Texas student in the college of Nursing. I have hopes of eventually becoming a Nurse Practitioner.

When I think about whom I ride for I feel like I’ve not had a significant connection to cancer. Many riders have lost those closet to their hearts; those who used to make their breakfast and who lifted them up in the worst of times. This has not happened to me. I do not ride necessarily for just one person, but for every person. I ride for the numbers that cancer takes and continually take. I ride for the mother who has to suffer watching her treasure lose its luster. I ride for the man who will find out tomorrow he has relapsed. I ride for every soul rooted in cancer and the one who will be. It is these people that I will pedal through every mile for.

I ride for Sophia Vogel and her family. She is four years old and battling (like a champ) an undifferentiated sarcoma behind her left eye. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy by the best at Texas Children's. I was able to meet her for the first time this past December break. She's a fighter, and with the Lord by her side she will destroy this disease. I can feel it in my heart.

I ride for Walter who died in March of 2009 to a type of throat cancer. I was apart of a program called Pals, (Peer assistance leadership) and once a week we visited an assisted living home. Every week I played dominoes with Walter who had really defined my senior year of high school. I was entirely unaware of his fight with cancer until the day I came to visit and he wasn’t eagerly sitting with the dominos. He didn’t really discuss his life before this home, but I discovered for myself after he left. He was a celebrity in the town of Pasadena, Texas. He was known for his gentle spirit and encouragement in sports. He meant everything to this town, and they were robbed of his presence sooner than they should have been.

I also ride for my best friend, Kady the golden retriever. She was a therapy dog with a sense of humor. She visited assisted living homes and allowed residents to recall their inner child. I lost her in May 2008 to Lymphoma.