Who am I?

I was born in Omaha, Nebraska and raised in Blair, a community of around eight thousand people. My father was the pastor of a local church, and therefore, I grew up in a very Christ-centered home. The theological standards in my household are likely to blame for my very black-and-white worldview and strong work ethic just shy of perfectionism. My father’s family was from Nebraska and my mother’s family was from Wisconsin. None of my relatives lived close to me, and so I hardly ever got to spend time with any of my cousins until my uncle, on my mom’s side, came to live in Blair with his family. However, those cousins were not close enough to my age that I felt much connection to them. My family lives just outside of the city limits in a neighborhood with few people, so I didn’t have any children my age to grow up with. Most likely as a result of this, I grew up being rather antisocial. I’ve stayed in the same home in Blair for 16 years and have developed many deep connections to the people there. My maternal grandparents lived in an RV and would travel back and forth from Arizona to Nebraska every year until their RV got repossessed about seven years ago, and they had to come live with my family in our basement.  I learned from a very early age to love reading and excelled not only in this, but in all my academics, quickly becoming top of my class. In fourth grade, I was admitted into the school’s high ability learners program, but was almost not considered because of my quiet nature. Since then, I have learned to speak with confidence and became a part of the speech team in high school. In fourth grade, I became a part of the Cub Scouts, and later graduated to the Boy Scouts which took up much of my time until high school. I made many long-term friends and several unforgettable memories and eventually earned the rank of Eagle Scout the summer before my freshman year of high school. In fifth grade, due to either the high quality music program or the musical aptitude inherited from my mother, I took up the alto saxophone. Because of my aptitude for the instrument, I developed a powerful love for music and have since taken up the bassoon and consider music to be an inseparable part of my life. The presence of animals in and around the house, along with an amazing biology and anatomy teacher, created in me a general respect for and curiosity about the living world and inspired me to go into a field dealing with life. This combined with my theology influenced me to choose a field in which I would help to “fix” the broken in this world, and where I could live out my faith through my work. I plan to earn my bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering, and pursue my master’s in neuroengineering. Afterwards, I plan on finding a stable job and earning a living while I work on my PhD, with the end career goal of research, potentially in the area of mental illness.