Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly

content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it

meaningful to you?
As the end of fourth period approaches, I glance at the clock, eagerly
awaiting lunch. However, it's not because I'm hungry, or because I'm
bored. It's because at lunch, I have the opportunity to head out of
school to the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and into the lab. There,
I work on studying mechanisms of stem cell gene therapy, and how it
can be improved, and eventually optimized.
When I enter the lab, I greet my mentor, a postdoc working at USC. I
put my things down, settle in, check my email, and head off to work.
Each day brings a new adventure, a new piece of a grand puzzle;
things never get stale in lab. I am thoroughly fascinated by the ways
every small procedure adds up, how every soft click of the
micropipette, how every drop of blue loading dye, how every fluttering
Bunsen burner fire can lead to the betterment of mankind. Through
the amazing mechanisms of recombinant DNA technology, I am able
to computationally design and then engineer a synthetic DNA
sequence, a sequence never in existence on its own before. I can then
use gel electrophoresis to verify that the desired sequence is created,
through observing beautiful hues of bright purple UV light and
fluorescent orange nucleic acid stain. This DNA can then be purified
and inserted into stem cells, which will synthesize a protein based on
the DNA sequence I created. Genes sewn by hand. Proteins by design.
Unlimited potential. All accessible inside of a research laboratory. All I
am happily content to work with every day.
What I find the most joy in is the fact that this work can potentially
improve the lives of millions around the world, including people in my
local community. The aim of my project is to improve gene therapies
for treating AIDS and other diseases of the blood and immune system.
Though the success of the project would truly have an impact on
people I will never encounter, it is also meaningful to me personally
because of a good friend of mine. He has described for me the pain his
two mothers face as AIDS patients, how they constantly have to
consume cocktail upon cocktail of pills that don't even cure the
disease, and will likely cost them over $500,000 each in their lifetimes.
He has told me about the struggles he and his parents face for being
gay, and how they are somehow considered bringers of death for
creating AIDS. None of this is right. I want to develop new ways to

treat AIDS, cancers and other diseases, a single procedure or short

series of treatments that will last a lifetime, so there is no need to
constantly take drugs to keep the condition from worsening or just to
control symptoms. As a bisexual, I also want to represent the LGBTQ
community as a scientist, breaking borders of sexuality/gender
identity, and inspiring other young LGBTQ people to pursue science
and to help make the world a better place for all of mankind to live in
harmony, regardless of race, religion, sexuality, or
gender.
These are the thoughts that frequent my mind when I enter the
lab: my workplace, my magician's workshop, my home. My place
of contentment.