So much of who we are is where we came from. And for one donor conceived Colorado man, finding that out forever changed his life.
"I just kind of had this big question mark overall over my identity for many years," Ryan Kramer said.
Ryan and his mom Wendy went looking for Ryan's biological father and siblings when he was a child.
9NEWS first met Ryan and Wendy in 2002, when he was just 12 years old. Back then he was a curious preteen, breezing through college math and on his way to a bright future.
They had no idea who Ryan's father was, but it was clear early on Ryan had hit the genetic jackpot. Ryan enrolled in college at just 14 years old and graduated at 18. He's since completed a master's degree and worked in several fields including rocket science.
Ryan met his biological father when he was 15.
"So, this is a picture of my son, and his formerly anonymous donor," Wendy said. "So that's his biological father and this biological grandfather."
Wendy said Ryan, his father, and grandparents are connected not just genetically, but emotionally.
"His grandparents adore him and we adore the grandparents. They're lovely people, so we're really lucky. "
Things that he thought could be nurture are actually nature.
"There's this just particular stretch that I kind of do all the time that's just a very specific thing, and he does exactly the same thing," Ryan said.
Today, Ryan works at Google Life Sciences and lives near his father in Northern California.
"It's been an extremely enriching experience in just about every way," Ryan said.
They spend time together often, and though Ryan doesn't call his father "dad," knowing him has changed Ryan's life for the better.
"It's more like an uncle or cousin or something akin to that," Ryan said. "It's lifted this burden that I walked around with for the majority of my life."
