Personal Story

Creation has always been a passion of mine. As a child, before I could even properly formulate sentences, I could often be found constructing elaborate pathways for my Thomas the Tank Engines. As I grew, that graduated from basic toy trains to Legos and magnetic toys. I always loved to build; one of my favorite Christmas gifts as a child was an iCoaster, a set of magnetic roller coaster pieces you could connect to create an endless loop of marbles being lifted up an elevator system, sent down the track, and returned back to the elevator. Immediately, much to my father's chagrin, I insisted we create our own unique coaster instead of following the instructions provided.

Building something was often not enough for my younger self. I did not want to simply follow a recipe; I wanted to create something uniquely mine, something shaped by my own imagination and expertise. That yearning stayed with me throughout my life, and even as my passion for physical construction began to fade, I never relented in creating things. It wasn’t long before I discovered just how powerful a tool modern computing is, and how endless the possibilities for creation are with software in particular. Once I began taking Computer Science classes in high school, my path was chosen, and there was no turning back.

I vividly remember making my first “programs” on Alice. For a final project we were instructed to build a simple game. Most classmates created things like tic-tac-toe or a stationary carnival-style shooting game, where users simply pressed “Space” to fire at moving targets. I instead attempted a more complicated “Call of Duty”–style clone, complete with a user interface, movement, and aiming. Enough was never enough for me; when I create something, I take extreme pride in it.