If you are looking for an obituary, official words, or a journalistic remembrance, I’ll point you elsewhere. What you’re going to get from me instead is something different: a first-person account from a fellow brain cancer patient-advocate who had the privilege of walking alongside Adam Hayden for nearly nine years. Also, don’t expect me to write as eloquently as Adam did. Few people could.

After eight years in health research, I’m going back to school to finish my bachelor’s degree—and, who knows, work toward a PhD? For now, it’s a three-year, self-funded “research sabbatical” with big goals, tight budgets, and a lot of heart. I’m scared, excited, and ready. So why am I doing this now?