For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a reader. I was lucky enough to be encouraged strongly by my parents- they were always buying me books, and encouraging me to read. I can remember checking out a Hardy Boys book early in elementary school, and loving it. So much so, in fact, that the next day after school we went to the public library where we checked out all they had, a paltry five or six others. I devoured those too, and that was when I experienced the famous book-lover’s phenomenon- staying up all night under the covers with a flashlight, reading.
The language side of things is a little more complicated. I grew up speaking French and English concurrently. I cannot overstate the immense benefit of knowing multiple languages- fluently. I grew up paying a lot more attention to the grammatical structure of English as compared to French, as well as the etymology of words. I think I owe my editing ability (though I’ve not mastered it) entirely to my bilingualism. Fast forward ten or so years, to my freshman year of high school. My English teacher was a huge fan of diagramming sentences, and that’s where my technical knowledge of English progressed from casual observances, to a much deeper understanding of how sentences are structured.
All of this falls into the technical writing side of things. I’ve been interested in math, science, and technology for a long time, and finding a way to couple my skills in English and my knowledge and capability in technology and other related fields has brought me to the Professional and Technical Writing major at Virginia Tech.
About me specifically: I’m twenty-one years old, and I attend Virginia Tech. I’m a Junior majoring in Professional and Technical Writing (but you already knew that) and minoring in 3D Art. I’m an avid swimmer, and have been swimming competitively for 15 consecutive years. I’m a huge technophile, and built my first computer (with parental supervision) at age 8. If I were to describe my personality, I’d choose to use the Meyers – Briggs archetypes. Even though today they’re basically disproved, I’ve found that by and large I fall into the INTP category every time I take the test. That is- Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving.