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Name: Mary Martin
Major: Biology
Year: Junior
Hometown: Bothell, Washington
What was it like to speak to the entire freshman class for the First-Year Reading Experience? I’ve been in plays before, but never that size audience and never playing myself. Surprisingly, I felt comfortable, but in the middle of it there was some feedback from the microphone and I had to stop for a few seconds and get my bearings.
How did you prepare? I took a lot of notes to the podium. I talked about the symptoms of autism and Aspberger's Syndrome, which is what the main character in the curious incident has. My sister Kristen is autistic, and I have a cousin who has Aspberger's Syndrome. I also talked about ways my family does things and how it compares to the book.
What are some of the symptoms? Tantrums, impaired social interaction, and in Autistic Disorder, delayed or impaired speech. My sister has other medical challenges, including a heart condition and scoliosis, and she is considered legally blind and deaf. But it is amazing what she’s able to pick up on. She has learned to read lips, and she uses a combination of English and American sign language, and some signs we’ve made up as a family. She is a very alert person, and she goes to high school (she’s 18) to attend a special program. Despite all of it, she can still do some things for herself; like go to the refrigerator to get a cheese stick for a snack.
What is a day like for your family? We are a family of shifts. My mother is a program manager with a computer corporation and she works from home. She has the daily duties of getting my sister ready and off to school, and then she meets the bus in the afternoon. My dad works for the IT division of a pharmaceutical corporation and he works at an office, so he helps with night activities. I take Kristen swimming, for example, or to the park, or to doctor appointments, like a hearing aid mold appointment this summer. I also stay with her at night until she falls asleep. She has sleep apnea and often has trouble getting to sleep. When I’m at USC, I talk to her on the phone a lot.
It must have been very hard for you to go so far away to college. It didn’t really hit me until the day I was leaving and Kristen brought some of my things out to the car. I just broke down and cried and wouldn’t let her go. But I needed to learn to be on my own. Coming away was essential because otherwise I wouldn’t be equipped to take care of her in the future, when my parents are no longer able to care for her. I’m her next legal guardian and will take over her care if anything happens to them. That’s also the reason I’m leaning toward being a medical school professor instead of a practicing physician. My schedule would be more flexible.
But definitely a profession in medicine? Oh, I knew from the time I was three that it would be medicine. While I was growing up, it became a hobby of mine to research my sister’s conditions. When I was in high school, she had a severe infection in her spine following surgery. I wrote my senior paper on that incident. That’s what got me interested in infectious diseases, which is what I’d like to specialize in.
What classes have you taken? Last semester, I took molecular biology, organic chemistry II, and religion. This semester, I’m taking bacteriology, physics, abnormal psych, biochemistry I, and EDLP, which is the peer leader class. I’m a peer leader this year. I also belong to a sorority—Delta Zeta. Their philanthropy is for the hard-of-hearing.
Are you totally fearless? No (laughing). But where would you be if you didn’t face your fears? The best way to get to where I want to be is to tackle a lot of them.
8/05
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