After learning about my work, I'm sure you're wondering how my life played out to get me there, aren't you? Let's go back 200 years. I grew up on a farm with my two sisters. My father introduced me to the benefits of growing fruit trees early on. We had little money, so I had to work as a private tutor while I was still in school, despite my bitter fear of exams and presentations.
My... My eagerness to learn was stronger than my fear though, so I studied philosophy at the University of Olomouc. I was always hungry because I hardly had any money still.
That's why I had to abandon my studies and become a monk, even though I had good grades. I still attended lectures on the cultivation of fruit trees and viticulture, improving on what I had learned from my father. Despite being in a monastery, I was permitted to pursue teaching.
I worked as a substitute teacher for 14 years, but what really fascinated me was science. That's why I wanted to become a teacher of physics and natural history. I taught myself both subjects and went to Vienna to try my luck in the university there for my teacher's certification.
But I didn't pass the teacher's examination in Vienna. Determined to succeed, I enrolled at the university nevertheless. to study physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology in Vienna for two years.
One of my professors was Christian Doppler, now famous for discovering the Doppler effect. Even then, my fear of exams got the better of me. After failing the teacher's examination one more time a few years later, I went back to Bernou.
I tried to find a way to increase our food supply using what I had learned so far. I figured there must be some use for my skills. So I spent eight years in the monastery garden, breeding and researching heredity on over 28,000 pea plants and analyzing the results statistically. That was not common practice back then.
It was only decades later that people realized how important statistical analyses are in botany. You can still find the descendants of my peas in the monastery garden in Brno. In 1866, I published the results of my research, but yet again, nobody understood me. Eventually, I became abbot of the monastery, dealing with tedious things like monastery tax.
Nevertheless, my love of research remained. In my free time, I helped found the Meteorological Society and became vice-president of the Natural Research Society in Brno. In 1872, I was even awarded an important medal by the emperor for my contributions.
But that was, thankfully, not the apex of my legacy. After a kidney ailment, I left this world in 1884. In 1900, other researchers rediscovered my work. Ha! Finally, someone understood me.
They applied my research to use it for farming and millions of... people have since benefited from my research. Happy birthday to me!