"He made people gifts when they came to visithim in the hospital," Hathi says. "His didn't wantto be a symbol of sympathy."

From the beginning, Hathi says he was impressedby Hruschka's attitude.

"He went through a lot of things, but he neveronce complained, he never sought any sympathy, henever made himself the center of attention," hesays. "I found his attitude astonishing."

The situation never became depressing, saysCharles A. Kapelke '96, one of Hruschka'sroommates.

"When he came home from the hospital you couldtell it'd be okay because Dan is just burstingwith positive energy," Kapelke says. "He madelight of it the whole time which made it easierfor everyone, including himself."

There were a few unavoidable difficulties,however, according to Hruschka.

"I had to drop two of my classes," he says. "Iended up taking just three math classes." And fora guy who says he likes to lift weights and run alot, "feeling low-energy and getting out of breathwas difficult," Hruschka says. To compensate,Hruschka says he picked up some other interests.

"I really seriously started playing guitar whenI first got cancer," he says.

Some of his new interests rubbed off on hisroommates, Kapelke says.

"The only drawback, besides the obviousclinical ones, was that he had a lot of free timeso that he started watching '90210' and sucked mein too," he says.

Hruschka, a math concentrator, says the biggestchange was in his outlook.

"Originally I really believed in math andscience and ultimate truth and everything, butthen I realized, when I saw all these doctorsguessing and not sure how to treat me, that itwasn't magic," he says. "I realized that there area lot of other aspects of life that are just asimportant."

Such as stories, he says.

"I got into reading a lot of books, from havinga need for something more human than mathematics,"Hruschka says. "Like literature, more preciselyoral literature, because you actually talk toother people and hear them, and interact withthem."

"He's gone from math to myth," his roommateKapelke says.