Hey everybody! I'm Tory Cross, and I'm a freshman studying psych and (hopefully!) MCB. Last year, when I picked up my first U of I brochure, I saw the Illini 4000 tidbit, turned to my mom, and said, "I'm doing this. No matter what, I'm doing this." This is probably the most excited I've ever been to do anything!Unfortunately, I don't have any news to share about the first training meeting or our first team Potluck, although I did have the chance to meet my rider buddy, and I'm really excited about that!I missed out on the training this week to travel to Florida to see my grandma, lovingly known as Nana. Nana was diagnosed with bone cancer 7 years ago and has been undergoing chemo the entire time. A few weeks ago, my grandpa, Gramps, took her to the hospital because she was no longer eating. While there, her doctors discovered that she had liver cancer. They felt that her body was too weak to handle more chemo, and they sent her home. The doctors estimated that she had 3 months left to live.On my way to the airport to fly down to see her, my sister (who was also visiting) called and said that my mom needed to come with me, the nurses said she probably would lose her fight during the weekend. Somehow, my mom managed to get on my flight and we headed off to Florida.There was no possible way we could have been prepared for what awaited us when we got there. Nana had moved to a hospice, and she could no longer speak. She had just enough energy to squeeze our hands when we entered the room, but it was only for an instant. We spent Friday with her, and returned to the hospice on Saturday, where a team of absolutely wonderful nurses did their absolute best to make sure she remained in as little pain as possible. Saturday, at 4:48 PM, Nana's pain ended. I wrapped my arms around my mom and Gramps, all of us glad she no longer felt pain, but wishing she'd never had it in the first place.Sunday morning, Gramps got out of bed and said he wanted to see sunrise at the beach, so we all climbed in the car and went. As my family and I stood, looking out at the sun coming up on the water, it made everything we're doing this summer feel so much more real. We're riding for so much more than just a ride across the country. We're riding for more than ourselves. We all have personal reasons to ride, but it's more than that. We're riding to show that the fight doesn't end. For each of us, there's someone in our lives who no longer lives in pain, but that doesn't mean that their fight ended. Their fight travels with each of us, everyday, and that's what we're riding for. It's a fight that doesn't end until no one has to bear the pain of it any longer.