About Me

Profile

About: Hello! My name is Sydney and I am a senior elementary education major at UT Austin. I grew up in a small town outside of Fort Worth called Azle, Texas. I have an incredible family with loving parents who have supported me in everything I do. My favorite way to spend a spare hour is by going on a run, although I value the opportunity every now and then to curl up and watch movies or read a book. I love to cook every chance I get, and often find myself procrastinating by doing so. I am involved with a ministry called Mount Nebo where we spend time with kids in low-income communities and share with them the hope of the gospel. I adore kids and the joy they bring to any situation. After graduation, I hope to teach 3rd or 4th grade in Austin. If you would like me to ride for you or someone you know, please do not hesitate to reach out! Every story is worth sharing and worth riding for.

Why I Ride

Cancer is a struggle that I have never had to know personally. Growing up, I knew cancer as colloquially familiar, yet emotionally foreign. It wasn’t until my college years that I started to understand its ramifications—not by researching the disease and its effects, but by encountering people who had experienced or are experiencing cancer in their narrative. As I listened to their stories, I began to put names and faces of individuals and families who have been deeply affected by cancer. I ride for knowledge because I once lacked it. In the context of cancer, knowledge holds the power to save lives, to understand, and to fight with zeal. I decided to join Texas 4000 because it gives me an opportunity to be apart of something bigger than myself and to join in the fight against cancer with the power of knowledge, hope, and charity.

If you find yourself reading this, I ride for you. Whatever way you have been touched by cancer, know that there is hope in the fight. For me, hope means Christ—it means that I am promised something far greater than the now, and that the now does not define me. I want to ride for those who are struggling or have struggled with the darkness cancer casts on many lives. I want to ride for hope that there are people fighting alongside them, hope that cancer will no longer be a disease without a cure, hope that cancer will never again be a thief of life, and hope that there is something far greater to come beyond the limitations of a prognosis.

This disease is fierce, but so are the fighters. I ride for the privilege to fight alongside every individual who has had to know cancer; for my teammates, for those who cannot ride, and for the stories I have yet to hear.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away…. Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Revelation 21:4-5