My First Attempts

When I was very young, I fancied myself one day becoming a great author of fiction. As soon as I could move a pen to form words, I did so. Somewhere stashed away are notebooks full of my stories and ramblings. When I was a little older, I even joined a young writers' club and got a little something published in their newsletter. When my family first got a word processor (as a predecessor to a real computer) I was thrilled at being able to write and edit more easily. When I was in middle school and high school, I saw ideas for stories all around me and wrote them down as often as I could. And even now I have many works of fiction and poetry (most only started and no where near complete) saved on my computer.

So what happened? Why am I not the famous author I planned to be? My desire to be creative was always there, but it was eclipsed by my primary passion and talent of mathematics, and later (after I discovered it existed) of computer science. From a young age, I excelled in the more analytical and logical side of things. I studied in accelerated or advanced math courses starting in the fourth grade and continuing on through high school. During high school, I also discovered something even greater than mathematics: computer science, and I determined what path I wanted my professional life to take. In college, I attained a bachelor's and master's degree in C.S. as well as a second major in mathematics tacked on to the bachelor's. I loved logic, mathematics, and computer science, but as my passion and skill for what is now my career grew, the part of me that had once hoped to be a great creative writer was often pushed aside.

Especially in recent years, my secondary passion has truly fallen on hard times. I still write some, but not as much as I used to, and very rarely have I shared what I have written. This blog is my attempt to begin to change that.

I'm not even sure anyone will ever see this. I might end up keeping it a secret, as I have kept most of my writing so far, or I may not. At the very least, perhaps this will force me to write more, and to regain what I had when I was very young. I've been training my brain to go in one direction for too long. It is time to see if I can reclaim an ambidextrous brain.