| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | I remember sprinting to an exhibit at the science museum when I was six years old, ahead of my parents, giggling and squealing while I ran away from my brother. When I got to the exhibit, I saw a strange machine that glistened, twirled, and twisted every which way. I stared with awe, contemplating how such a thing could exist. Now, I understand it as a display of wave motion using a long, spinning bike chain, but at the time I decided that I would grow up to become a scientist. As fortune would have it, I am now a medical student. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | My father, because he instilled in me the principles I follow today: to do good, treat others with respect, help others, work hard, and to do all the above with dignity. He has always been there for me and, as a father, has helped me become who I am today. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | Confidence, intelligence, humility, self-respect, kindness, defiance, resourcefulness, optimism, resilience, independence, honesty, loyalty. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | Back in high school, I accidentally scraped my arm up when I fell off a fence, and a few of my friends kept asking what had happened. As the marks were reminiscent of claws, I jokingly told them that my family had been hiking in Montana when we were suddenly attacked by a black bear. Over the week word spread that this kid got attacked and lived through a bear attack, and every student and teacher I saw asked to see my "gnarly" marks. I was interviewed by the school paper, and to this day everyone still knows me as the bear. |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | New Zealand, Prague, Turkey, Malaysia, Taiwan, Peru, Croatia, Czech Republic, Berlin, Sydney, because as someone who has studied anthropology, I love learning about new cultures, especially when it comes to food. Each place has their own customs, languages, social norms, and local/global festivities which I love immersing myself into. I have traveled most of my life, and the greatest experiences I have had are those in which I toss away the tourist map and explore with new found local friends. As goes without saying, each of these places also has beautiful landscapes and countrysides in which to explore. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | The love of food and cooking. You can learn a lot about someone's culture by what they eat. To treat others with kindness. Although you must stand up for yourself, you must also remember that great leaders and people are those who show compassion in the face of contempt. Health is the best investment you can make. What's the good of being rich if you have poor quality of life? Hard work is a great quality, but a better quality is to work efficiently. It does not matter what you do, as long as you're the best at what you do. |
