Issue Four Summer 2020

When you are 11 years old, everything
feels like a big deal. Baseball championships
behind the Johnson School
and hanging out with friends by the
beach were both earth-shatteringly
momentous to me. Jumping off the
wharf for the very first time, then- a
rite of passage for most Nahant kidswas
a very big deal. Slowly, I stepped
towards the edge of the wooden slats,
unaware of my friends creeping up behind
me to push me over the edge. Ice
entombed my body as I suddenly realized
I was flying helplessly through the
air towards the frigid, unforgiving surface
of the ocean. My heart raced, my
eyes shut tight; I had no idea what lied
below the surface and my body seemed
to be rejecting the new and unfamiliar
experience.
Just as quickly as I had fallen into the
water, my head popped above the surface
of the tide, grinning wide in anticipation
of another jump in my newfound
favorite summer pastime. Yet,
that singular experience sparked a tidal
wave of questions for me about why
people think and feel the things they
do and how the human brain works.
Eventually, I found that I had experienced
some anxiety, and being the aspiring
scientist I was, figuring this out
led me to learn the intricacies behind
how and why our minds trick us into
intense moments of fear. As middle
school ended and high school began,
a fierce desire to help others with psychiatric
conditions blossomed into a
passion for neuroscience.
This passion stayed mostly passive until
last summer; adults always tell kids
that they can’t make real change until
they grow up, so getting good grades
at school and excelling there seemed
like the best way to ensure my future.
Attending the Congress of the National
Academy of Future Physicians and
Medical Scientists last June empowered
me to start pursuing my dreams in the
present. I began contacting doctors to
interview them for articles on teen mental
health because I wanted every opportunity
to learn about the brain and
how it is affected by different things.
I strive to be aware of others and what
they’re going through to increase the
quality of my relationships and the
quality of life of humanity as a whole.
As someone who has experienced
some anxiety and who has seen my
friends grapple with mental health issues,
I have witnessed firsthand the
effects that can have on someone and
it breaks my heart. My concern for
others frames the purpose behind my
career choice. I refuse to standby suffering
without taking action, and by
researching neuroscience and better
understanding the brain, I plan to
completely eradicate panic attacks and
even suicidal thoughts in adolescents
in my lifetime.
A year ago, I went through the motions
of school without a second thought,
my ambition simmering under the surface
of my drive and compassion for
others. I wanted to make a difference
and I wanted to do it in the here and
now, not ten years down the road after
I had earned a degree. At the same
time, I knew that I would have to develop
skills in business and science research
to be taken seriously by either
community. No one was going to hand
me the information; I had to learn how
to read a research paper, synthesize the
claims, and use the necessary software
for biomedical mapping all by myself.
When I heard about The Knowledge
Society, a human accelerator for teens
who want to change the world through
scientific discovery, it seemed like the
perfect opportunity to further my research
into the brain and its function-
29 | Nahant Magazine