I find microorganisms to be incredibly fascinating. Ever since I was young I remember looking at various pictures of bacteria and viruses in my mom’s textbooks she used as a registered nurse. At the time, I was not even fully aware of what I was looking at, but I enjoyed looking at the fascinating pictures within them and learning what I could about these little creatures.I had completely forgot about these textbook adventures by the time I made it to high school. During my senior year I decided to take an Advanced Placement Biology course. The curriculum of this class included briefly glossing over viral replication, certain common metabolic pathways bacteria utilize, and some uses bacteria currently serve. After doing a miniature lab in which we transformed bacteria with a gene for fluorescence I was hooked on the idea of microbiology and decided to make it my major when I was accepted into Colorado State University.As someone who loves a good puzzle to solve, and also loves learning, I began to entertain the idea of how we could manipulate microorganisms to our advantage. If we could use the microorganisms' own characteristics against them, similar to how antibiotics function, could there not be other characteristics we could utilize to help protect more people from getting sick?I finally got to gain experience in microbiology through my college courses as well as my position in both the Jackson and Gentry-Weeks, microbiology research laboratories, and I enjoy the field even more now. I hope to continue expanding my knowledge of microbiology and various laboratory techniques. Having a career involving microbiology and research would both satisfy my desire to learn, as well as keep me challenged considering there is still much we do not know about the many microorganisms we share the Earth with.