| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | As a child, my mother moved us to Puerto Rico to learn Spanish. We picked up on the language, we learned how to dance salsa, and we developed a love for the culture. My favorite memory was kayaking at night through a meandering canal that opened on to a cove into one of the only bioluminescent bays in the world. It was a breathtaking experience watching the light from the water illuminate the night sky and the hills around us as we all swam in the waters. It is truly a memory I will never forget. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | My father is one of the best men I know, and I am truly grateful to have such a loving and warm father. No one is perfect or without flaws and from his humility I have learned that by being open and honest about your experiences you can teach your children some of life’s biggest lessons. I closely identify with him because I have taken on this role as a father, and I find myself living the same way with my children. It encourages me to be honest, live intentionally, and constantly strive to become better through every endeavor. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | I remember growing up watching movies and being completely enthralled by scenes in which lawyers went back and forth in their witty banter. It is still one of my favorite things to watch. But as I got older, I realized it was their confidence and intellectual capacity that always drew me in. A doctor with an incredible bedside manner and compassion for people is also something that always energizes me. Perhaps it’s the reason I went into the field myself. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | This is always a hard question to answer; I feel like there are so many funny moments in my life. I will share a moment that just happened a few days ago that had my fiancé and me in gut-wrenching laughter, like the kind where you almost can’t breathe. I was carrying my sleeping three-year-old son down a flight of stairs when I lost my footing on the very last step. I fumbled around for what felt like minutes as I tried to regain my footing. As I’m stumbling, I’m in a panic thinking that if I fall, I’ll potentially crush my son who is innocently asleep in my arms. I finally regained my footing and leaned on a car. I turned around and witnessed my significant other dying of laughter a few steps behind me. We laughed nonstop for the rest of the night. Any silence was immediately broken by a burst of laughter. I’m laughing again just writing this. |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | Without the limitation of time or money, I would travel to every country in the world. The feat alone would be monumental, but the lessons learned along the way would be the real treasure. I first began traveling to see the differences in things around the world. The more I traveled I realized there are more similarities in people than differences and I continued my travels in search of those commonalities in people. The more I have traveled the more I have fallen in love with people, culture, and most importantly FOOD! So, if I could have it my way, this is how I would continue to travel. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | My philosophy in life is that you can experience, live, or breathe life. Experiencing life comes without any effort. It is passive in nature as it encompasses things that simply happen to you. Living life is an active pursuit of knowledge and wisdom through experiences that enrich your life. Breathing life is taking all that you have gained over your years and giving it back. Like an ebb and flow, balance in life’s purpose is filling your cup so that you may fill the cups of others. I have lived my entire life with this purpose to pass on to them all the enrichment in my life in the hope that they will in turn pass it on to the world. |
