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My name is Neal Linden. I'm a freshman in the Grainger College of Engineering, studying aerospace engineering. I joined the Illini 4000 because my friend from band back in high school, had done a year previously, and they told me that I should do it. I had never biked. But when I went to the interview, I met a lot of the people in it, and I really liked the group. So I joined. When I first started training for this trip, I was really excited just to see the national parks, the landscape really was really excited for the Badlands coming up. But recently, I was able to speak with a member of the Prairie Dragon Paddlers. They are a breast cancer support group, basically here in Champaign, just in speaking to her about her experience with fighting, who has metastatic breast cancer. And working through it and helping others, it really just like, inspired me, it was such a strong, powerful story. I just can't wait to hear more. I think being a student in the Grainger College really prepares you for anything that you want to tackle. It's hard work, it's not going to be easy. And especially now managing our fundraising and our training and just practicing, learning, everything we need to know, it's just, there's a lot of time management involved. It's a lot to do. And the Grianger College, it's the classes are hard. There's a lot you have to stay on top of and it really just helps prepare you to manage your time and do hard things. When you're doing something that you enjoy and you're doing it with the people you want to be around, although you're busier it ties everything in together it helps balance everything out.


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