Profile

About: Hi there! Thank you for visiting our page to learn more about our missions!

I'm Rebecca, a fourth year nutrition major at the University of Texas. A few things I've always loved are hiking with friends, going on picnics, trying new recipes, exploring local cafes, cuddling with my dogs, taking yoga classes and recently, taking care of my plants! Outside of school, you can catch me mentoring first-year SoHE students, volunteering at local events, being involved with my ministry or simply spending time with my family and friends!

If you, or someone you know, is or has been affected by cancer, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'd love to hear your story and it'll be an honor to be a part of it.

Why I Ride

There are a lot of unknowns in life. Questions unanswered from our past. Questions floating in our minds right now. Questions about our future. What we will be doing 5 years from now. How do we move forward from this. Where will we be. Who will we meet.

I came to realize how real and scary the unknowns of cancer can be when I lost my two grandparents to cancer. Having been born and raised in Austin, I was never quite close to my grandparents in Korea. Yet, from the few memories I have of them, I have always known they were such incredible, loving people. My grandpa was one of those people who could never be fazed or stirred. You could just tell that he was incredibly strong, consistent and trustworthy just by the way he spoke and carried himself. My grandmother was graceful, warm and wise. She would always embrace us with a huge hug and be the first one up every morning just to wake us up with her specialty tomato jam sandwich. They were two figures who always chose to love fully and live intentionally. For several years, my grandfather had been battling cancer. The cancer was contained for a while, and though the treatments were difficult, he was able to continue living life to the fullest with my grandmother by his side. Yet, one evening we received the unexpected news that my grandmother was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. With such a short notice, my grandmother passed away before we could see her again. Soon after my grandmother, my grandfather also passed away after battling the slow and difficult fight against cancer. Losing these two strong, wise and loving figures to cancer, I could not help but to be struck by the frailty of human life and the ruthlessness of cancer altogether. It was like a domino effect then. A dear church member was diagnosed with cancer, a close friend’s mother was starting her chemo, a family friend was rediagnosed with cancer. Cancer, an illness that had always seemed quite distant, was affecting the people all around me. It hit me then. Cancer is real. So terribly real and so cruel and harsh. Yet, cancer remains a mystery with an overwhelming amount of unknowns. In many moments, I felt helpless and unsure of how I could help the people around me. Yet it was this realization and the desire for a change that gave me the courage to apply to texas4000 and support the fight against cancer.

It's interesting to see the extreme to which cancer does not discriminate. We are all incredibly so different. We each have a mind of our own, a different upbringing and a unique set of desires, values and passions. Yet, to cancer, a human being is merely a biological system. Nothing more. No race, age or any amount of wealth, fame, wisdom, love or even a healthy lifestyle can protect a person from cancer. Cancer does not discriminate and the unfortunate truth is, it doesn't care about who we are.

Yet, there is something powerful in spreading hope and uplifting each other. There is something beautiful and often necessary about refusing to give up, fighting till the very end and doing our best as supporters, as patients, as friends in this fight.

With the hopes of making some sort of contribution to the fight against cancer, I choose to ride with Texas 4000 because every life is worth fighting for. I ride so cancer will be less of an unknown in our lives. So we no longer would need to question the effectiveness of a treatment. So in the future, there would be no dead-end to cancer treatments, no need to worry about cancer reappearing, no fear of losing a mother, a child, a friend, a teacher to cancer. When there is something worth fighting for - a dream we have, a person we love, or a cause we believe in - we hold onto any bit of hope, learn to let go of fear and do the very best we can right?

I ride in remembrance of my grandparents and others we've lost.
I ride to celebrate the victories of those who have battled cancer.
I ride because it is a beautiful thing to pedal, to hope and to breathe.
I ride because it is a beautiful thing to be alive.