I started my PhD determined to balance theory with hands-on work, splitting days in the lab and nights in the MIT Garage—until an article about the Isle of Man TT made the race feel inevitable, the perfect fusion of travel, motorcycles, and engineering. To explain why I’d risk my PhD, I rewind to the journeys that rewired me: India taught me anticipation and adaptation on dangerous mountain roads; China and Tibet taught patience, boundary-pushing, and the cost of risk; South Korea taught endurance over long, disciplined miles. By the time I returned to MIT, risk had become a practiced discipline, not a thrill—so when I walked into the Garage clutching that TT article, it didn’t feel reckless. It felt like the next class in the curriculum the road had already been teaching me.