Although I wasn’t sure about a major until the week before I applied to Ohio State, I knew that research had to be a major part of it. An experience that had a large impact on my decision to do research was observing my grandmother’s battle with dementia over the years. Since the year I started middle school, my grandmother had been in and out of the hospital for several reasons including breast cancer and colon cancer. Her treatments were long and tough, but through my young eyes, she was still the same loving grandmother. It wasn’t until my high school years when I began to notice the physical and mental toll it had taken on her. Not only had she lost weight during the process, but the medication and treatments had been slowly affecting her memory. Around my freshman year of high school she was diagnosed with dementia and from that moment I knew I wanted to help.
I chose to major in biochemistry so I could develop a background for research, hopefully, in a field that involves neurological brain diseases. Being around my grandmother constantly meant I observed most of the instances that helped/harmed her memory. While the doctors tried different medications and trials, our family tried new adjustments. From the time she ate, to her diet, amount of sleep, and brain exercises, we continued to make small changes to her routine in order to see what worked best. We wanted to give her any chance to help her brain grow stronger.
Through the past couple of years we have seen small amounts of improvements. Although with each improvement, a set-back seemed to not be far behind. The summer of my senior year she fell off of a small step ladder and broke her hip. After a few months of recovery, rehabilitation, and constantly reminding her to not cross her legs when she sat, we had her home for the end of the holiday season. The pain and dementia were not a good combination, especially when she didn’t remember the accident or why she couldn’t get up to walk to the kitchen. As she healed, we noticed how her condition had grown worse when she started to forget names.
Thankfully back into a normal routine, we now take it one day at a time and observe how tricky the mind can be. What I found most interesting was her ability to forget a conversation from five minutes ago, but still have the ability to perfectly recite a famous song from her childhood. Her stories started to constantly mix in parts of her life from when she was younger and the conversations never grew dull (although they were sometimes repetitive). She has always pushed me to do my best and inspires me each day. I believe it’s important to have a larger goal in mind when choosing your future. No matter where I end up after college I plan to continue to follow my goal. Currently, I’m focusing on finding undergraduate research here at Ohio State and completing my studies in biochemistry. I hope to eventually get involved with medical research over at Ohio State’s Medical Campus where I can explore my possibilities for studying neurological diseases. I continue to talk to my grandmother each week and remind her of where I am and what I’m doing. With each conversation she gets more amazed that her granddaughter is already in college and I don’t mind when she repeats how proud she is of me.