We The Future: Stage 1 is the cure!

 Most kids dread going to biology class. Maybe it's because they're lazy, or just don't find any of it interesting, but not many people would call it their favorite subject. That is until they start learning about cells, genetics, etc. That's what happened with me.

In 7th grade, I don't know if it was because I had a bad teacher, or what, but I HATED science. I wanted to be a writer, and would never ever use this stuff in life after middle and high school. But, once we learned about genetics and cells, I began to develop aspirations of becoming a genetics counselor, which is counseling couples wanting to get pregnant and/or dealing with children they had already who were born with genetic diseases. Let's just say, the genetics and cell reproduction unit really boosted my grade!

But that was 7th grade, a hard-to-believe 2 years ago. Now, as a freshman in high school, I have decided on being a gynecologic oncologist (very specific, right?). In my last essay published on the Cancer Schmancer website, I went in to more detail as to why, but this time, I wanted to share just how that's working out for me. :)

We're back to cell reproduction and genetics in high school level biology. (And no, I am not in honors…not that much of an over-achiever!) I have to say, it has become one of my favorite, and best, subjects this school year (after English of course!). It's my highest grade, and NYU Undergraduate 2019 and Medical School class of 2023 really looks positive! Today, however, we were talking about cancer and how tumors form. I must say, I had a knot in my stomach the whole time. My mind didn't wander off to other things like homecoming this weekend or the fact that my geometry grade sucks, but rather how strange it is that with as much knowledge that we have on how these tumors form, we have no clue as to how to prevent it.

Now, I know that at Cancer Schmancer, the motto is "Stage 1 is the cure!", which is 100% true. As of now, we have no cure for cancer other than catching it early in Stage 1 when it's most curable. But, talking about the way that the cell regulators sometimes don't catch abnormal cells, making those cells go through mitosis over and over again (whew!) had me thinking about "what if those cells 'stick' (or something to that effect) to other normal cells and pass through because they look okay?". For all of you who don't know, this is what's called a hypothesis. :)

I'm sure that a 15 year old in high school was not the first to think of that. In fact, my Otolaryngologist (ENT) father said they research that every day. I obviously get it from him because when he was in physics, he would think of things that they already researched/had as well. Runs in the family!

Keeping all my rambles in mind, I challenge all of you teens, young adults, and adults out there to start thinking about the "what ifs" when it comes to cancer. Whether it be prevention, detection, or the cause, express your inner-nerd, because I think that if we all took 5 minutes out of our day to contemplate, share our ideas, and enlighten each other (learning about the Enlightenment in history class, don't judge!) we could learn a lot more, and possibly, just maybe, build a bridge to finding the cure.