I’m a strange girl. I like fashion and whatever, but I’m fascinated by genetics, biology, weather, and astronomy.

Throw a chronic illness into the mix and I find myself researching lab mice in my spare time. Go figure.

Anyway, my family knows I’m a bit odd, but my request for a genetic test for Christmas was met with uncomfortable silence. My sister laughed and my mom told me that sounded a bit too personal. That if something came back that I didn’t want to hear, she wouldn’t want to be the one to have gotten me the gift.

I totally understand that. So today, I finally bought myself my Christmas present: a genetic test from 23andMe.

I literally had butterflies of excitement filling out the order form. I think it’s so cool that biotech has entered the realm of personal DNA testing. And that I can get it for $99… Wow.

Not only that, but I like how 23andMe supports scientific/medical research. You can join the 23 and We community and agree to lend your anonymous genetic test results and survey results to studies. I think that’s awesome. I think that the more data points we have, the more trends we can discover. The more trends, the more hypotheses and tests that can take place. More tests, hopefully means better answers, better drugs, and more hope for patients.

I have to wait about a week to get the test tube, then about four weeks to get results. I’m excited to let you guys know what I learn!

Side note: when I Googled “DNA testing for Christmas”, Justin Bieber’s image was everywhere. Weird.