What Have I Gotten Myself Into?!?March 22^nd, 11:30pm – Train Ride to NYC Somewhere in Indiana.What have I gotten myself into?!?  These are the words that keep running through my head as I am sitting on a 22-hour train ride with 21 people I barely know.  I keep thinking of how I ended up here… on a shaky Amtrak train bound for NYC.  You see, this journey started 5 years ago when I first step on the campus of the University of Illinois.  Like all freshmen, I went to quad day the first Sunday before classes started and was bombarded by hundreds of student organizations.  As I walked down the crowded rows I started grabbing fliers and signing up for nearly every club on campus.  I remember a man in tight black shorts and an orange jersey yelling “BIKE ACROSS AMERICA TO RAISE MONEY FOR CANCER.”  Intrigued I approached the table and asked for more information but his flier fell helplessly in to my sack of quad day crap.  Over the next four years I found out that this organization was called Illini 4000 and the group raised money for cancer research by biking across America.  However, despite how awesome their mission and the trip sounded, every quad day I would by pass them thinking “ehh, not this summer”.As my college career developed I started to use my summers as a time to do stuff that I would not be able to do when I am older.  In 2010 I traveled to Ghana and provided medical care through the International Health and Development Network.  In 2011 and 2012 I went on mission trips to Virginia Beach & East Asia with Cru and had the amazing opportunity to share my faith with people.  However, as the summer of 2013 approached I had done every thing on my bucket list.  With one free summer left before I started medical school I knew I wanted to do something Epic that would also make a difference.  I toyed with the idea of going on another mission trip with Cru but thoughts of the Illini 4000 kept flooding my brain at night.  After a long time in prayer, I decide that I would apply to do the ride and finished my application 1 hour before it was due.  Within a week a guy named Connor Ramsey contacted me asking when I was free for an interview.I will never forget meeting Ramsey at the Espresso Royale on Goodwin for my interview.  I was running 10 minutes late and had to sprint over a mile because I showed up at the wrong Espresso.  I thought the man interviewing me would be intimidating but Ramsey was far from that.  If any thing, I could describe my first impression of Ramsey as goofy.  Ramsey is a tall, lanky, man who is always in black skinny jeans with blond facial hair.  However, despite his looks I could tell that Connor’s heart was in the right place and that I should give this I4K group a try.  Although I don’t remember the interview I remember that night receiving an e-mail from team development congratulating me on making the team.  I guess since then I have been asking myself “What have I gotten myself into?!?  As I still sit here nervous and scared for this ride I feel like I cannot answer that question yet… However, I can say that I am happy that I have gotten myself into an organization that over the past year has raised over 100,000 dollars for cancer research.MAtt(P.S. currently i am in DC, I will upload more blog post once i edit them)