Sarah Gray

It didn't look like much, but it was amazing to think of how many people were involved getting these samples there.

Like we had to approve it.

We had to fill out this paperwork.

Then the doctor had to come and remove the eyes and the eyes had to be processed and the eyes have to be shipped up there.

Then they have to do whatever DNA process they do and just how, I don't know, valuable, maybe even priceless the sample is.

Something shifted in me.

I used to think like the universe treated people the way it should.

And now I don't really believe that.

But I do believe that there are really amazing, kind people in the world.

And science and medicine has something to do with that.

I started feeling that these were Thomas's colleagues and his coworkers and that he was a valuable partner in this important research that was being done.

And I felt an even more fundamental shift, almost like I had felt like I was a boat on an ocean that was like rocky and choppy with waves.

And I had this feeling that I'm not the boat, I'm the ocean.

Like, the decisions that I make are changing other people, as opposed to just, I'm a boat getting slapped with waves all the time.

It has made me feel... powerful.