From playing futbol in a park in Santiago, Chile, with my brother, to wandering the Manila markets in the Philippines, clinging to my mother’s hand, to sitting in the countless bone-chilling hospital rooms. I’ve had a vast amount of experiences around the world, which have shaped me into the person I am today. Through the mental battles and deep thoughts I have faced throughout my life, supplemented by an education in psychology, I understand that our lives, values, and goals are all based on the collective of our experiences to date. Contrary to what most people would think, I believe that beating cancer was possibly the greatest experience for me.
I have always been a deep thinker. Long before my diagnosis, I found myself asking questions that most people my age never considered. Questions regarding identity, purpose, impermanence, and what it actually means to live well. Battling cancer just ignited it.
When you are bedridden, stripped of routine and distraction, you are left alone with your mind, during a lockdown and pandemic, in a way that very few people ever experience. For many, that silence becomes unbearable. For me, it was an expedition. Rather than collapsing into self-pity, though I will not pretend that idea wasn’t explored, I turned inward with genuine curiosity. I thought about who I was, who I wanted to become, and what I actually valued when everything felt lost. Cancer forced me to confront questions about life that most people defer until they are much older, if they ever confront them at all. I did not choose that confrontation. But now I can choose what to do with the lessons it gave me.
What emerged from that period was clarity. I understand that I am energized by difficulty, not defeated by it. That when I face something I do not yet know how to solve, my instinct is not to retreat but to break it apart and find a way through. Cancer stripped my layers down and held up a mirror to show me who I was, and who I was capable of becoming.
My battle with cancer clarified what I want to do with my life and why. I want to work at the cutting edge of technology and research, specifically in aerospace and motorsport, because these fields represent something I deeply believe in: the relentless pursuit of pushing the limits of what is possible. Formula 1 in particular is one of the most concentrated environments of engineering innovation on the planet, where aerodynamic and mechanical breakthroughs developed on the racetrack have historically found their way into road cars, medical devices, and life-saving technology. I do not want to pursue this path for recognition or prestige, I want to pursue it because the bedridden version of me, staring at a hospital ceiling, deserves a future worth fighting for, and because the technologies developed by the engineers I aspire to become have the very real potential to make lives better for people still fighting battles of their own.
Every technical problem I solve, every design I iterate, every standard I refuse to lower is my way of honoring that version of myself, and fighting to give others the opportunity they deserve to thrive. So while I won’t let the suffering and pain of the past define me, their lessons were invaluable to who I am and what I will achieve today and in the long life still ahead of me.