“I always really liked biology, it was always my favorite subject in high school. My mom is a doctor so she was always pushing me to go premed. Growing up, that’s always what I envisioned. Then I started getting more into math and physics and chemistry and everything else and then I thought, ‘now what?’ That’s how I first got interested in bioengineering.
I started getting more into hiking during my freshman year. I went solo backpacking and the original plan was to drive there myself. I was nervous going by myself for the first time. Eight miles from the trailhead I found out that the bridge was closed went with a backup plan that was considering instead. I had to drive an extra three hours around but I forgot to put in the real trailhead into my GPS, so I wasted all this time and hiked two miles down this road that I shouldn’t have been. Then I had to turn around, drive back, and find the real trailhead. I get to the trailhead and it’s already past sunset and I hiked and set up camp at night. It was creepy that first night in the tent all alone, but then the sun came up and it was a perfect February morning and I went swimming in the lake, took naps, just hung out. From there, it’s all been history.
I haven’t entirely ruled out grad school or even med school at some point after graduation. I’m more leaning towards wanting to get a job, ideally in Seattle because I really like it here. I don’t know if it will be something totally related to what I’m doing in lab, but I feel like that would be my best chance to getting a job here.
I haven’t looked into that too much because after graduation I’m hiking the PCT, the Pacific Crest Trail. It’s a trail from Mexico to Canada, or that’s how most people do it. I’ll be doing it backwards though because we graduate later in the year. That will take four to five months. I’m hoping that on that I’ll hone in what I want to do afterwards.