My name is Ronnie Li, and I was born in Qingdao, China, a place that’s often known only by the people who drink Tsingtao Beer, and I moved to America within a few years of being born. I’ve lived on Long Island, New York all my life, starting from Elmont, then moving to Valley Stream and finally Great Neck. Each successive movement correlated with an improvement in my quality of life. I'm thankful for everything that has happened to me.
I’m an alumnus of Brown University with a B.S. in Neuroscience; I'm now a graduate student in Neuroscience at Emory University. Before I went to college, I never took my classes seriously because I thought they were all easy, but the university environment truly humbled me. I like to learn a lot from experience, and my bygone college career still continues to shape my perception of diligence and success. I firmly believe that “success is 99% perspiration,” and I concede the rest to good fortune and opportunity. My lifelong goal is simply to leave a footprint on the world and to be remembered for my achievements, and though I’m not there yet, I plan to strive for that dream with every breath. As you can probably tell by now, I’m not much for giving up, but that’s because I’ve learned the lesson the hard way.
For those of you who have never met me, the “hard way” is through family tragedy and my Tourette’s. I lost my mother at the age of nine, and despite having an incredibly loving stepmother I gladly call “Mom,” the initial loss of my birth mother was inevitably traumatic. On top of that, I have a neurological condition called Tourette Syndrome that causes me to make uncontrollable body movements and incomprehensible sounds. You can probably imagine that this caused tension within my family, but at this stage, I’m proud to say that it has shaped my life. My condition has made me direct my dreams away from maintaining a stable job or making money and to the more abstract, yet fulfilling dream of helping others. I want my footprint on the world to be an altruistic, nourishing one.
Reader, I expose all of my greatest secrets before you, and I hope you will take the time to browse and read the pieces that are of interest. Please feel free to contact me using the navigation bar above. Goodbye, and I leave the rest of the exploration to you.