Natalie spoke confidently while reading the personal information, but as I watched her focus on the writing, I couldn’t help but wonder what she was feeling as she began to go further into detail. She continued while not skipping a beat. ”You decided that the risks of taking it are significant enough to motivate you to stop taking them.” she burst into laughter with her adolescent past. The fact she had lied to the nurse and had continued on using the pills was funny to her. I enjoyed the dark humor so I laughed as well. Yet, Natalie was more interested in easing her mind, so her body would continue to suffer until she found something simpler.

From my "Running On Empty" story.

"Growing up in northern California, I noticed a parallel between fearlessness in the water and fearlessness on land. A lot of the big wave guys I grew up idolizing were notorious for getting into serious shit—meth, drunk driving accidents, just general mayhem. As the son of a psychologist, I began to wonder if there was something about the brains of these people that drove this behavior. I took my first research job in San Diego in 2009 and though the place has changed, my questions are still the same. I’m still looking for the biological reasons for risky behavior. I’ve learned a lot, but most of my questions are still unanswered and that lack of knowledge keeps me motivated." - Michael Barrus

We were back in small town Montañita, Ecuador and we'd lost Juan for about 8 hours. It was really unusual as we were always together and he'd never skip out on the swell that had started to fill in. We went for a damn good surf and ate lunch and went for another one. Still no Juan. "The hell?" I thought. We were starting to get worried. Late that evening he walked up the stairs and we yelled "Juan where the heck have you been!?" and he replied "Just talking to my beautiful girlfriend back home." Then about five minutes later he said "Oh, and I got into Harvard today."