I'm the youngest in a family with four kids, so dinnertime was always about keeping up, and that meant doing your research. I'm sure that applying to university was, in some ways, a way for me to keep up with my brothers.

I took high school seriously enough so that I could go where I wanted to go.

Hard work. I coasted through high school, and my first year of university was a rude awakening that you need to show up prepared.

Learning. I didn't love my first couple of years in university, but there was a moment in third year when suddenly all of the subjects I had studied were starting to tie together, and I began to feel like I was mastering something.