I cannot tell you how many times I have smiled, laughed, cried, or been uplifted by the words your mom writes on the blog. However, I have to say that my favorite recent story is how, as treasurer of Student Council, you took your responsibilities seriously and had to attend that dance no matter what. The best adjective that comes to mind is ‘fesity’ although ‘determined’ and ‘committed’ are also good. Not to mention ‘turbo’. By this I mean you seem to do everything you do with the idea that you have to give more than 100%. You remind me, nearly every day, to do my job in the same way, and also that just working in a job that involves cancer research isn’t enough to say I’ve done my part. I have to be an activist as well, by writing letters to congressmen or giving money to charities that support the research. I admire you and am inspired by your story and all of its ups and downs.
Well, as for bits about me (most of which you already know!):
I grew up in Bryan and went to Rice University (much like your dad and brother), and of course you know my parents (Pam and Cady Engler) well. I think one of the first times I met your family at FPC in Bryan was when I was discussing Rice with your dad. I decided to go for a PhD in biology research when I finished at Rice. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, only that I wanted to do something related to fighting a disease, because that is the point of all this research, right? I ended up in a lab that studies breast cancer and tries to understand what happens in a breast cancer cell in an original tumor that makes it turn into a metastatic tumor. Well, it turns out I am better suited to writing than I am to lab research. And, in academic research, you have to really focus on one question. I couldn’t even read about things in all of breast cancer – I had to narrow it down and only think about things directly related to the two genes that I worked on. There just wasn’t time for more! And I hated that. I really wanted to be able to learn about all kinds of cancer and the research that’s being done on them and how all this will be translated into treating real patients and hopefully someday knowing how to cure these awful diseases. So I ended up working for a magazine (scientists call it a journal) that publishes articles on cancer research, some of which I write, and some of which the scientists doing the research write.
On the personal side of things, I am married to a guy I met at Rice (his name is Sean). We lived in Boston for 6 years while I was in grad school, and in that time two things happened: (1) I realized I love the Red Sox and (2) I realized I hate snow. Oh, and Sean also asked me to marry him! We lived in Philly for a while, but now we are in London. We’ve gotten to see some amazing places in Europe while we’ve been here, and on December 28, 2007, we welcomed our son Owen into the world (he’s 10 months old now). I’m sure that if you want to see cute baby photos of him at any time, you can just ask my mom – she is a very proud grandma!
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