About Me

Hello! This was originally written for my capstone project, Project: Red War, so if it sounds like I'm talking very specifically about a project, it's that! First and foremost, you have my utmost gratitude for taking the time to read through this project. As I’ve mentioned, this project is not only my senior capstone at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), something that I have to do in order to graduate. This is also a passion project of mine, something that I’ve been wanting to do for years.

Let’s start way back at the beginning. I was born in California in a city about 30 minutes East of San Francisco. At the time of writing this, I am 21-years-old and in my senior year of university at the Rochester Institute of Technology (more on this later). When I am back home in California, I live with my parents, my sister, and three of the least photogenic dogs to have ever existed. Two of them are Maltese, one being the mother of the other. And one is a Terrier-mix. I adore those three rascals and am so happy they are in my life.

Sometime around 2006, my sister and I received a Nintendo DS Lite. I would hate to speak on her behalf, but I think it is appropriate to say that we both adored that little machine. We played New Super Mario Bros. (2006), Mario Kart DS (2005), and Animal Crossing: Wild World (2005) all the time. A few years later we received a Nintendo Wii for Christmas. This is what I blame for my passion for games. I remember spending countless hours with that system, playing games with my family all day long until they could no longer stand. It was at that moment that I knew that I wanted to be a game developer.

Fast-forward to the Spring of 2019. I am a senior in high school applying to colleges. My advisor recommends that I apply to the Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York. I had never been to New York and, at that point, had yet to experience snow. I had also heard that RIT had an excellent Game Design program, but that was trivial compared to being able to experience snow for the first time. So, I applied as a Computer Science major with the plan to secure a job in the Computer Science field before looking to branch out into Game Design.

That summer I was notified that I was accepted into RIT. I was extremely excited. This was the first time I would be away from my family for months at a time but who cares? I finally get to go to college and start working on what I love! Right?

… My supposedly fool proof strategy went down the drain after my first semester. I despised the work I was doing in the Computer Science department. Coding used to be fun as a side project, but now that it was my livelihood, I hated it. I wanted to leave the program so badly, I even considered dropping out of university entirely. I attempted to switch into the Game Design program starting my Sophomore year, but then the world decided to fall apart with that whole pandemic thing.

So there I was, stuck at home in the same Computer Science program that I despised, looking for some way out. Although it may seem dramatic to describe it as such, I think the following analogy is an accurate portrayal of the incident. The School of Individualized Study (SOIS) descended from the heavens and invited me to check out their program. I got in touch with a SOIS advisor and immediately knew that it was the perfect fit for me. I applied and was accepted before the start of my Junior year at RIT.

That’s it, right? You applied and everything was gumdrops and lollipops from then on? Oh … I wish it was. … It wasn’t. My Junior year was full of ups and downs, sometimes it felt like a lot more downs than ups. However, I am grateful to have gone through such an experience. I am forever grateful to find out about the things that I don’t want to do, because that makes everything that I do want to do a lot more special. I spent my entire Junior year learning 3D Digital Design and Digital Art and found out rather quickly that it was not my forte. I struggled through that program and barely escaped with my life.

Well, here we are. It’s almost the start of my senior year of university and I still don’t know what I want to do with my life and career. Again, I am being dramatic when I say this, but it is rather apt and accurate. It finally came to me in a dream … well, I was awake, but in a dream-like state late at night. It was the night before a road trip to visit some friends in San Diego to celebrate one of their birthdays. The drive from up around San Francisco to San Diego is about 500 miles and 9 hours long so I was a bit nervous. Anyways, I was thinking about my life, as one does at 4:00am. Then, out of nowhere, it finally hit me. I had been taking a few Creative Writing courses at RIT and was thoroughly enjoying them. It finally occurred to me what I wanted to do …

I want to write for games.