Journal entry by Tim Isdahl —
Wow, it's been a while since I last updated this! Sorry for the long wait! I'll try to catch you all up on what's been going on since I posted this a long time ago.
So when I last posted, I had just gone to the NFL Alumni gala. I mentioned that I had made a speech, but I didn't actually post it. So here it is!
My speech: HERE
On March 4th, we left for Florida for my wish. We got there to tropical temperatures and lots of sun! We spent the first day on the beach, riding Waverunners and going parasailing. 2 aunts, 2 uncles, and my grandma and grandpa came to Florida too to visit! The only downside was Laura getting stung by a stingray!
The next day was my wish day. I got to the stadium early, got a tour of the facilities, and got to meet a bunch of players! Then I went behind the scenes to see and experience what the bat boys do (including cleaning shoes until someone called me away!) I had a long conversation with Tsuyoshi Nishioka (through his interpreter Ryo), and got a front-row seat at the game! I was able to talk to Ron Gardenhire (the manager) and a bunch of players, and we ended up winning the game 7-2! I ended up getting one of every piece of equipment that the Twins give their players -- and trust me, it's a lot!
The next day, we went to another game as normal spectators. We lost, but it was still a really nice day in the sun. Overall, the wish was a really cool experience and both Make-A-Wish and the Twins were great!
School ended today! So this summer I'm looking forward to volunteering at Children's Hospital and working at Kumon (a math and reading place). Because I'm volunteering in the oncology wing, I'll hopefully be able to meet oncologists and maybe find a mentor for Honors Mentor Connection next year! My oncologist already said that I could shadow her for a day, and a friend who did HMC this year had another Children's oncologist as a mentor (and the mentor is interested for next year!)
Also, on the topic of giving back, I went into 3 sophomore health classes (including Laura's!) to give a short talk about cancer. It was pretty casual, so I mostly talked about self-awareness and not being afraid to talk to parents and doctors. I was still pretty worried when I was putting pictures on the morning of, though!
The college search is on, and I'm starting to get stressed out! I currently plan to go to medical school after going through a top pre-med program. Currently, my top choices are Carleton, Northwestern, Duke, and Harvard. I'll have to do a lot of essays for those, so that'll be my big summer project!
Another thing I've been doing that is coming up soon (ON FRIDAY) is RELAY FOR LIFE!! I'm one of the speakers at the event, so I've got to finish up my speech! If anyone's managed to read this far, we're still trying to do fundraising, so if you would like to donate to my page, you can mosey on over to my website (CLICK HERE) and click "DONATE"! It would be much appreciated!
Note: You may be wondering what the story is on my page -- it's the article I wrote for the Trojan Tribune in February!
Thanks to everyone for all of your support and generosity, it means a lot to me! I consider myself past this whole thing, and will be mostly done with this site, but I might update it with news about Honors Mentor Connection, volunteering at the hospital, or other cancer-related stuff I'm doing.
Thanks for reading!
~Tim
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