About Me

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An education can never be limited to purely academic accomplishments. Education involves the process of interpreting and learning a new fact, process, or even a new experience. Participating in the Texas 4000 would encompass all three of these educational aspects and allow me to educate and inspire others to take on any challenge. I would teach others that I am just like them. I would show that even seemingly impossible goals can be attained through dedication and care.
Aside from learning the facts of training for the ride, I would be in a much better position to truly understand and teach others the tough facts of cancer. Being able to reach out to people and show the very real consequences of ignoring the issue would instill in them the desire to step out of their comfort zone and do something beyond their everyday routine. I have already started researching various ways of finding sponsors and donators to help achieve the monetary goal set in front of me.
The process is perhaps the second most difficult educational aspect that Texas 4000 would expose me to. Signing up for the ride seems like a simple task. However, the countless hours of reaching out to the communication paired with endurance training will make the processing both challenging and rewarding. Being able to influence individual opinions through fact based education would show that the process is working; the goal for which Texas 4000 was created is being fulfilled. I have already started working on the process by biking at least five miles every other day. This seems like a small step, but it still counts toward being able to ride for 80 miles through rain or shine.
Every end result of a goal is the experience; it is being able to reap the fruits of labor, it is being able to get on the road tested bicycle and pedal 4500 miles for a purpose. The experience is the ability to bond with all your friends that you have made during the process of learning. It is also being able to reach out to others that I encounter on the trip, influencing their opinions when they are faced with life saving decisions. The experience is important because it shows that all of your work has finally paid off, you are spreading the message to others about the harsh reality of cancer that many view as just some random disease.

Why I Ride

When my new acquaintances ask me where I am from, I automatically go through a combined set of explanations, which results in revealing the location of my birth place. My parents were born in Novosibirsk, USSR, a city well within the boundaries of Central Asia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, they moved to a city called Tiraspol, Moldova, a small country neatly tucked away in Eastern Europe near Ukraine. Perhaps Ukraine is what helps people visualize the location of my birth place. Since just stating Moldova always results in confused faces, I have decided that this explanation might make more lights go off.
My family lived in Tiraspol for 9 years before a haphazard set of events put me in Austin, Texas. My mother contracted meningitis in February 1998 and died two months later. Although her death deeply saddened me, I later understood that she would not want for me to feel that way. Her main lesson was perseverance. No matter how high the odds stack up, it is always important to continue toward the goal and focus on success.
My father, who worked in Moscow later met Anne, an Austin raised woman who was heading IBM operations in Russia. This woman was to become my new mother, whom I love and respect just as much as my birth mother. Now, after living in Austin for the past nine years, I have achieved several goals thanks to my life lessons. I have conquered the challenge of learning a language completely new to me, assimilating into a culture vastly different from the one that I was born into, and achieving goals I never thought possible.
Cancer has influenced my life in an undesirably close way. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer last spring. After the diagnosis, she seemed to have completely given up. Luckily, the cancer was caught in the early stages and the doctors now believe that it has been eradicated. However, like all cancer patients, she is not truly sure that this is the case. My mother is an important motivational factor for the ride, she has continued raising me at the point which my birth mother left off. I want to do anything I can to ensure that every step is taken toward the eradication of cancer. Losing my second mother to yet another disease is something that I will stand up to by taking any action necessary. This is all the motivation I need to pursue this challenging yet rewarding experience.