I'm just a regular guy. I want people to realize that I embody the true American dream. I work hard. I went to school.

If you look at some of the clips of me in the operating room, I sit in the chair, I control the microscope with my mouth, I connect, my hands are always working in the brain, my feet are controlling everything.

I'm not a politician, I'm not an economist. I'm just a simple Brian surgeon and a scientist who's trying to do my best every day.

You have to have passion for everything you do, and you've got to look at the positive side.

You know how in sports baseball players, they hit home runs. Football players, they throw and they score touchdowns. I get to do something that very few people get to do - I get to touch the human brain, and every day I get to hit home runs, I get to score touchdowns.

As a researcher at US Berkeley I used to go into the brains of small, little animals and study the way that brains were connected and how little did I know that one day that was going to be my future - exploring the universe of the brain and hold it in between my hands and look at cells migrating.

I hear hate. I hear people who clearly don't have a great understanding of the American dream. That the American dream is based on hard work and dedication, determination, resilience, excitement, mentorship, help and love for each other.

To hear the amount of hate that people have in the United States is disheartening. However, I still have hope that we have not reached the pinnacle.

The greatest gratification that I get to work with these hands is that when I come out and I go to the waiting room and speak and talk to the families of my patients, I get standing ovations and I get tears and they look at me as superhuman and superhero. No amount of money, no amount of anything can ever compare to that feeling.

The same skills that I used as a welder, as a migrant farm worker, are similar skills that I'm using as a brain surgeon.

Doesn't matter how menial may be the job that you're doing today. If you have dreams, that will turn into something positive in the future.

I continue to do my job as a brain surgeon, as a researcher, and I try to make it better and better every day, not only for my patients but for their families, for my family and for the future generations of our country.

I'm not a genius. I just worked really, really hard, and I want our generation, our children and our future generations to realize that they can fulfill the same dreams.