People always ask, “So how exactly does a Mexican and an Asian get together?” Well, my dad was a Chinese restaurant owner and my mom was poor first generation Mexican-American college kid scrapping by waitressing at a Chinese restaurant. And as you might have guessed, a year later I was born… a half Mexican, half Taiwanese born and raised Austinite. And thus commenced my very confusing childhood where refried beans and tofu were not uncommonly seen at the same dinner table. After getting dropped on my head a couple times and watching way too much tv as a kid, I survived my childhood and adolescence pretty normally (well as normal as an Austinite can get).

Now, I spend sleepless nights studying to become a kick-butt mechanical engineer in hopes that I might one day change the world for the better. I’m all for making the world a little greener, and in doing so; I have decided recently that I want to work on alternative energy (wind, solar, fuel cells etc.). Besides studying and not sleeping right, I spend my free time playing rugby and hanging with friends.

A couple years back my mother and I were driving to pick up my sister when she told me that she had a lump. Although my mom was lucky enough to avoid getting cancer, that day became a moment in my life that I will never forget. It was so close to hitting home, this thing called cancer that the world fears so much. I could have lost my mom. I could have lost my best friend. And then I thought, “Someone else could have lost, could be losing or inevitably will lose their mom, dad, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, grandparent or friend to cancer… and there isn’t much that can stop it.” I ride for all the moments that people with cancer and the people around them have had when realizing cancer has become a part of their lives. I ride for all the moments that people fighting cancer and the people around them have had when they find out they have beaten cancer. I ride for the moments we will all have when we have found a cure for cancer.