About Me

Profile

About: Thanks for stopping by! I grew up in a rural farming community near the Gulf Coast of Texas, which taught me to love the country—when my dedicated dad wasn’t taking me fishing or hunting just miles away from our house, I was sneaking off to practice two-stepping at dance halls. Seeking to travel, I branched out into as many cultures as possible—I hoarded every kung fu movie I could get my hands on, NPR was my go-to radio station, and I managed to learn a decent amount of Spanish thanks to my small-town teachers. I've just returned from studying abroad in Australia and am so excited to get to work.

My family is my rock. Finding myself in a house full of women has taught me to be very independent. However, I’m glad to say that my older sisters have gone from bossing me around to driving me around to finally becoming two of my best friends. In high school, I became involved in debate, drumline, student council, tennis, and cross-country. Competition in the last two has instilled in me a lifelong love (and need!) for fitness. At the age of 16, I completed my first full marathon in about four and a half hours, and have since done three more on the way to my dream of qualifying for the Boston Marathon. After graduation, I pitched my tent at the University of Texas (which I’ve known I would attend since the age of 10). My fellow Austinites have since joined me in things that I never thought likely, including longboarding around the city, exploring the Green Belt and biking trails, and becoming a lover of weird music.
On campus, I’ve been involved in Camp Texas and the Freshman Interest Group program as a mentor, the resident ski and snowboard club, as a lab assistant studying biomechanics, and in Texas Iron Spikes, a service group that allows me to volunteer my time with Special Olympics of Texas. I’ve discovered a love of philosophy, my major, and hope to attend medical school after graduation. I’ve been a science nerd-in-training since receiving my first magnet set, but one day soon I hope to use my knowledge to the benefit of real, live people.
The writer Paul Coelho said, “To realize one’s destiny is a person’s only obligation.” My life will be a love letter to the intricate workings of the human body, and to the dual abilities of science and humanity together to impact the way we think about and treat disease. Join me on my ride!

Why I Ride

I ride for those who have lost the battle to cancer. I ride for Kory Kubecka, my sixteen year-old friend, hunter, and tennis player-extraordinaire. Most junior high kids should be preoccupied with which lunch table they’re going to sit at, but instead, Kory was facing a relapse of leukemia. Kory was brave throughout his ordeal and was rewarded at the end of our freshman year with a grant of remission. Just one week after Kory returned to the hard court, my tennis coach called to break the news that he had passed away. Cancer doesn’t really care how old or nice or cared-about you are, which is what makes it so unfair. I hope that the man I’m becoming somehow resembles Kory at sixteen, which is why he’ll be with me every second, every mile, and every tough moment of this ride.

I ride for my mother, the most unselfish person I know. Not long after graduating from college with so much dignity to become an elementary teacher, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was hard for me to understand at fourteen that her life was actually at stake, but fortunately she was of clear mind and in capable hands. Many thanks to my Uncle Barry for arranging treatment at Medical City in Dallas—you are my main inspiration for going into the field of medicine. I admire my mother so much for undergoing a double mastectomy so that the grasp of cancer would unleash itself from our family. I’ve grown a tremendous amount since this experience and will never again take for granted the fact that my loved ones have always been there. In the process of dodging cancer’s bullet, I was taught courage, strength, and resolve. For standing tall in the face of surgery, for keeping us informed, and for picking herself up and returning to teach, I ride for my mom.

I ride for my grandmother, who’s never ceased to amaze me with her wisdom. Before I was even born, “Granna” was engaged in a wrestle with lymphoma. At one point, her doctor even told her that the easiest way out was “two hundred extra-strength Tylenol,” a testament to how far medical knowledge and responsibility has come since. Granna now has the proud distinction of being one of the longest-living survivors of a bone marrow transplant in Texas. She once told me that she lived because she had the hope that one day she could see her grandchildren grow up to be the kind of people she would be proud of. I will carry this mantra through my life so that her dream can be fulfilled.
Did I mention earlier that cancer doesn’t really care how old or nice or cared-about you are? Well, it also tends to forget if it’s already paid you a visit! Before my college years, Granna fought tooth and nail against breast cancer twice, and after a year of challenging chemotherapy and the unending support of her husband Bob, she calmly bid farewell to this new invader. Granna always told me “If people aren’t wind in your sail, they’re an anchor on your tail.” For being one of the strongest gusts of wind in my sail, I ride for my grandmother.

I ride for my Uncle Harvey and Missy Gabrysch--a compassionate preacher and father and a full-of-life teacher and mother.

We all struggle against something, but most of us are fortunate that it doesn’t have to be cancer. I ride for the day that society cares to prevent and fight against cancer before it shows its face in our families. I ride for the healing power of science, so that one day the billions of dollars the global community has invested can come to full fruition, and that the human race can cast aside its worries of a merciless disease that afflicts our members all too often. For all the good that will come of our collective research and all the bad it will prevent, I ride for knowledge.