Hi, I'm a third year Plan II/Psychology/pre-med student. I hope to someday to be a doctor and to help people take care of their health properly--because you only get one life. Either that or Plan B: To learn and master all styles of the guitar--I haven't quite decided which yet =) I love guitar almost as much as I love to travel to other countries. Except for the first three years of my life (I lived in NJ), I have pretty much lived in Texas all my life, but I've travelled a bit outside the U.S. I've been to Jamaica, Mexico, Brazil (twice), Taiwan, and this winter I'll be going to China for the first time. Other than that, I haven't travelled much within the U.S., especially not on bicycle. Hopefully, biking to Alaska will bring many sights and people to remember.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness...Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." ~ Mark Twain

Like most people, I have a friend who has been diagnosed with some form of cancer. Her name is Alice Hwang, a friend whom I've known from elementary through high school (and now even at UT). I've known her for so long that sometimes I forget that she even has lymphoma, sometimes for the worse.

I remember this one conversation I had with her that distinctly affected my perspective on life: She was telling me about some good fortune she had happened upon that day. Carelessly, I had jokingly remarked, "Aw, not fair!" I instantly regretted what I had just said when she snapped back, "Don't talk to me about what's fair! Life certainly isn't!"

I was immediately humbled by her words, and I apologized for being so insensitive. But I realized that she was right: Life isn't fair, and cancer certainly doesn't care.

I realized that people out there--regardless of age, sex, money, popularity, or spirituality--are nonetheless developing cancer, even though they don't deserve it. But that doesn't mean we can't do anything about it.

That's why I'm getting my rear end off the couch, putting it on a bicycle seat, and riding 4000 miles all the way across the country to Alaska to raise money and awareness for cancer research--because if there's ever a cure to be found, it is through funding biomedical research. I know that we are getting close, and by continuing to fund such research, we will soon find the answer and provide life-giving hope for those in need of it. In fact, it was with the findings of such research that helped Alice beat her lymphoma. Now if she can do that, that I can certainly bike 4000 miles for cancer research--I owe at least that much to people like her.