She eats hills for breakfast
- Apr 20, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 16, 2024
By Haley Pacheco
It was the last day of freshman year high school English class.
Brooklynn Cnare sat down to take her final, feeling the nervous energy in the classroom as Mr. Willard held a pile of exams. Instead of passing out the papers like she and her classmates expected, the teacher proceeded to announce that he had been diagnosed with cancer.
In disbelief, she turned to her neighbor as the word “melanoma” and “skin cancer” echoed throughout her mind. Very like Mr. Willard, he said this casually and went on to have them take their heavily weighted exam.
While getting treatment at MD Anderson, he kept things relatively normal the following year when Cnare’s brother also took his class.
During the height of the pandemic, Cnare and her brother discovered that their teacher had passed away. Because of COVID, he couldn’t continue treatment and lost his battle.
That was the third time she had lost someone to cancer. First, her middle school volleyball coach died of colon cancer. Then, her grandfather died of a rare sarcoma cancer. Cnare said that it never became any easier to hear news like that.
“The worst part of cancer is when it is an inevitable death sentence,” Cnare said. “There was no cure for my grandfather’s cancer.”
While her grandfather was battling, Cnare heard about Texas4000, an organization where students bike 4000 miles from Austin to Anchorage, Alaska over 70 days. In the months prior to the annual ride, riders raise funds for cancer research and grants in support. Cnare said this was a motivating factor in her decision to attend UT.
“I had told myself then that if I went to UT, this was the thing I wanted to do,” Cnare said. “Now that I’m here and my grandfather is gone, I feel this is the way I can include him.”
The program lasts a year and a half in total, allowing time to train for the 70-day trek. It starts first with cross-training then basic skill clinics and then unlocking new bike routes each Saturday. Before the final ride, the students must log a total of 2,000 miles.
Cnare’s father, Kevin Cnare, said his daughter has always had a sense of resilience, even since birth.
“Brooklynn was always the kind of kid who said she was going to do something. And then she would do it,” Kevin Cnare said. “It was no surprise that she decided to do this ride.”
In addition to the physical challenge and time commitment that comes with training, Cnare is also a second-year architecture student and spends class and free time in the studio. She said that being in the organization has not only broadened her perspective on things but also gets her out of campus.
“Sometimes you get so stuck on campus that you forget there's a whole world out there,” Cnare said. “Getting on a bike and getting off of the 40 acres has been a really fun way to see more of Austin and its architecture. It really connects you to the small things because the world goes by so much slower.”
With balancing the rigor of architecture and riding, Cnare said there were moments she became overwhelmed with stress. Similarly when the rides get hard, she said it’s important to remember why she is riding to push through in those moments.
“I’ve been telling myself, ‘I eat hills for breakfast,’ whenever there are big rolling hills, but honestly, I think of my grandfather, Coach Davey and Mr. Willard.” Cnare said. “They battled through much harder things and knowing that you’re riding for a greater purpose has been helpful.”
Comments