The Growth of My Project

This Blog will take you in on a little journey of where I started with the upbringing into my passion for the research behind cancer

“A passion is something you are driven to explore¨ something my parents have grown up telling me. It's the first day of Kindergarten and your teacher hands you a piece of paper with blanks you can fill out. One of them reads, ¨ What do you wanna do when you grow up”. While you stand there listening to all these 3ft strangers excitedly explain how they want to be doctors, firefighters, or police officers, all you can sit there and think to yourself is how? How did they already know? How did they figure out they were passionate about something? But that question stuck with me, in fact, it still was until the past 2 years gave me a little tunnel vision of what I might like to explore. My name is Deeksha Bompada and I am a junior in high school. Sadly it's been less than a month since this year started and I can already agree with all the “Junior year is stressful” comments from everyone. But if there's one thing I can thank the last 2 years of high school for, it's for opening up new pathways for me to explore. For example, art. If it weren't for my mom and virtual art class during covid, where I very enthusiastically drew sketches from my IKEA desk in my bedroom, I don't think I would have found my passion for portraying meaningful messages through a few pastel pencils and a piece of paper. Who woulda have known the nation would see my piece one day? On the topic of meaningful messages, my mom would always tell me growing up, “deeksha do anything that your heart desires when you grow up, but always remember that something should always help not anguish those around you.” Obviously, my little distracted elementary school self just nodded for the sole purpose of her letting me go to the park or play with my little pink kitchen set, but I never REALLY understood what she meant, until now. In the past two years, I have grown, no not in terms of height but in terms of mental strength and maturity. Cancer. A very strong word known by most, but understood by very little. In fact, a few years ago, I only ever knew cancer as a disease in which abnormal cells divide uncontrollably until a close individual was diagnosed with it. The number of trips to the hospital and back for just one scan was torturous. That's when I thought to myself, “what resources and supportive services are available to individuals going through such harsh conditions? And Bingo, that's what I became interested in exploring, The sociological side of Oncology. I still remember sitting in my AP Seminar classroom when Mr. Ray came and passionately explained what an innovative and life-changing class ISM was. I saw ISM as a path to guide my interest and fuel my passion in my desired area. I was taken aback by the unique structure of the class and how students were pushed across their limits and encouraged to explore the real world. This was the perfect opportunity to start research into something I want to carry out to college and even after. The idea of a class being so self-driven, and that too with something your heart desires to explore intrigued me, and that's when I got right to filling out the application. And that's when I saw the question. The same old one I saw on that printed-out paper in my kindergarten class. “What are you passionate about”, everything was the same. But this time I knew just how I wanted to answer it.