From a very young age Elizabeth Brott, currently a Junior at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has become independent and she attributes that mainly to her environment and growing up in Chicago.
Before starting her education at UIC, Elizabeth attended Lane Tech for her high school career where she was able to grow into the young adult she is today. “My high school experience was filled with a lot of firsts. I learned a lot of things that I did not know before, such as realizing what is it that I truly want, and figuring out why I want it.” It was at Lane Tech where she started to uncover what makes her happy in life and realizing how important it is to go out and achieve her dreams.
One thing that has remained constant for Elizabeth is riding her bike, she has taken it up as a hobby starting at a young age and has averaged about a hundred miles a week, this is one way through all the stressors of life that Elizabeth stays energized for the day while also staying in shape. “ I also love ice-skating and have been part of a skating crew for about 6 years now. Whenever I am on the ice it helps me forget about all my stresses and I enter a very peaceful state of mind. I have also recently taken up skydiving as a hobby and plan to finish up my license this summer.” Being on the ice is something else that has always kept Elizabeth grounded and she uses it as an outlet to keep her mind on track.
Adrenaline and adventure are also enticing to Elizabeth as she has recently delved into the sport of skydiving in her leisure time. “It is definitely scary being on the edge of that open plane door at 14,000 feet and having to jump out and make sure you do everything right in order to save your life. For me being able to do that is all about realizing the fear and using that to your advantage to prepare the best you can.” Elizabeth says she uses this liberating yet confidence building experience to develop her extremely powerful way of thinking and to embrace the uncertainty in life and live on the notion that nothing is impossible if you train and work hard enough toward it.
When it came to deciding whether or not to attend college, Elizabeth says going to college was always a priority for her and her family. She mentioned how supportive her family is and how much they would support her no matter what decision she made. Part of choosing to attend UIC was the price of tuition as well as being able to live at home, which allowed her to stay focus on her studies and not devolve into the typical college life of indulgence and partying that the movies depict it to be. “Coming to UIC has made realize a lot of things. First, it has helped me become more mature. Knowing that if I do not put all my effort into a class I will fail and it is solely my fault. Realizing that it is my responsibility to make sure all that tuition money is not going to waste.”
This is just one aspect of life where Elizabeth has learned to gain maturity when it is needed, and being a student at UIC has been the driving force to her successful young adulthood. Elizabeth summed up her newfound college experience stating, “This pressure really pushed me to realize how no one is going to help you but yourself so you better make the best out of it, because that will be a reflection of who you are.”
Like many other students at UIC, Elizabeth has been a commuter ever sine day one. A lot of other students consider UIC for this reason, being that it is a Chicago based affordable public university. Elizabeth mentioned, “This is the main reason why I am happy to be at UIC, given that at some other out of state school it would definitely be a different story and that is not what I am looking for.” Elizabeth is a Bioengineering major at UIC, this choice was primarily based on her love for math and science and since she loves creating new things and problem-solving the engineering part of her major allows her to satisfy all of these passions. Seeing how her major can keep her on the trajectory to eventually land a career has always been important to her. “I never really knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life up until about a year ago. I always had a rough idea but it has not become solid until recently. I am positive that I want to create medical devices and also get my pilots license. These are the two things that I will stop at nothing to accomplish, and I am so blessed to know this at a young age.” Elizabeth always knew that she didn’t want to be stuck at some mundane office job being drained at the end of every work day. “For me, it was obvious that I did not want to waste my life away doing something that I found no meaning in. I have worked in the food industry starting at age sixteen where there is a lot of repetition, and I am so thankful because now I know that this type of job is not for me and never will be. I would hate to waste my brain power on a job like this.”
Elizabeth says she sees herself hopefully getting a job designing medical devices, and moving out of her parents home into a small apartment to help keep her life organized, she says moving into a large home would be too stressful for her. Then once she finally settles herself into her post-undergraduate life she plans on starting the process of paying back her student loans.
When she is finally able to save up enough money she dreams of pursuing a pilot’s license, her “dream is to become an aerobatic pilot” and being an engineer will allow herself to have the funds to do this while loving her job every step of the way. In five years after she graduates, Elizabeth says she sees herself falling in love with her aerobatics career as she hopes to be one of the best. Finding someone who shares her love for adventure and aerobatics is really important to her as well. She hopes to eventually move in with that someone who shares her same dreams in life. “I find that when I think one thing it always manifests into something that I would have never dreamed of. If you were to tell me the things I am doing now when I was younger I would not have believed you,” said Elizabeth as she imagined her future self.
When asked where she saw herself in fifteen years she says “Hopefully alive, and happy. I do not want to think too far ahead because that just does not make sense to me at all. I want to live in the moment as oppose to worrying about the future. I find that if you are too worried about the future you never really get to where you want to be because you are constantly stressing yourself out.” Living in the moment seems to be a way of life for Elizabeth and she thrives off of this uncertainty, but just knowing what she wants in the short-term and being able to stay focused and on the right track remains constant for her.