I certainly had a very busy childhood. At six months old, I was diagnosed with an astrocytoma brain tumor. I had two recurrences, at 18 months and then 7 years old. Being in elementary school, I remember the last recurrence clearly. As a result of my brain tumors, I have right-sided hemiplegia. Having a brain tumor very young, I guess the silver lining is that I grew up not knowing what I was missing out on. I didn’t have to readapt; I just grew into my disability. I later moved to Argentina, where both of my parents are from, it was rough. I faced bullies and was discriminated against because of my physical disability. In 7th grade, I went through some dark, grim moments, when I was the most hated person in my entire grade, possibly even the most hated in my school. When my bullies realized they couldn’t break me, they finally left me alone. By 8th grade, people started seeing me in a different light, I slowly began to be liked by my fellow classmates. Those challenges and dark periods in my life molded the adult I am today. I am proud that I overcame those difficulties I became the bridge between the different groups of people in my school. There were fights, hate, and some people were thought less of. I was the missing link, as someone who fit into the different groups, it was pretty awesome. My theory is that I listen and communicate in a way that disarms people, to gain their trust. I don’t like being the center of attention. I try to be low key. I adapt my communication to each group I am in, and can switch between different ‘dialects’ as needed. I was always very much into comedy and used humor to my advantage as well. My brain cancer history is something I didn’t mention much growing up. It made me feel vulnerable, as if I was showing some type of weakness. Over time I realized it was liberating to mention the cause of my disability. More often than not, people admire the fact that I went through brain cancer and came out a better, stronger individual. It was empowering to say that I was a pediatric brain cancer survivor. My favorite aspect of having lived in Argentina was the culture. It is so different and something I kind of miss often here in America. Argentina's food is also phenomenal! I miss the Argentinean barbecues the most, it's world class! A favorite memory of mine from Argentina was playing rugby for my local club; I got to meet amazing people, eat great food after our weekend matches, and it really helped me grow as a person, as well as helped me get through those tough adolescent years. In the end, I received an award for outstanding effort in the later years of my club career. Being recognized by my entire club was truly special to me. My neurologist once grabbed an old MRI and told me to take a picture of it. She said, “The fact that you are sitting here in front of me without any major cognitive or debilitating physical disability is unbelievable.” We are all given different gifts in life and I believe we have to use them to help others, to “pay it forward”. At different points in life, people have said that they admire me, and that I inspire them; And yet those powerful words help in turn to inspire me to continue on my journey, and to stay strong. I play soccer, rugby, and pretty much any sport no matter how physically strenuous it is. I have gone kayaking, paddle boarding and even ice climbing. Right now, I live alone with my dog (Leela), a beagle-Doxie mix rescue. I work as a user experience designer, which is someone who gets in the shoes of the user who is going to be using anything within our institution (mainly digital). I try to see it from the user’s point of view to make it easy and intuitive for our target audience. It requires me to leave my ego aside and listen. The job brings the human touch back to technology. For those newly diagnosed, I advise you not to let people tell you what you should or shouldn’t do. Be confident in yourself. Inner reflection can help you find your own way. If we all focused a little bit more on what we want to be, we would all be more self-fulfilled and happy. I try to remind myself that I have the capability and ability to make that happen. Trust yourself. It is hard in the beginning. For every successful person the path is never clear right away, nor is it a straight line. It is scary and doubtful at times, but you just have to go for it. Trusting yourself is vital. Believe in yourself… and do the work. Good things will come. It takes time to learn to have confidence in yourself and not give up. I had to learn to trust myself and be resilient. All things in life take dedication and refinement to become great; the same goes for becoming a great human being, we all have that opportunity, let’s take advantage of it by starting here! Thank you for supporting me and the more than 300,000 kids worldwide who will be diagnosed with cancer this year. By sharing the gifts of your time, talent and money with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, you're supporting research to give all kids with cancer a better chance for a cure.