Growing up I had all kinds of ideas of what I wanted to be when I grew up: an actor, director, or singer (together which I called a “celebrity”), but then I was told to plant my feet firmly in the ground and pick something a little more realistic. So I picked being a computer artist (go figure!).

Unfortunately, I had very little idea what a computer artist was; or rather, I had a very misconstructed view of what I thought it was, and what I thought it was synonymous with: digital art, graphic designer, media arts, etc. were all terms that I thought meant the same thing. Basically what I wanted to do was the special effects in movies, and to do 3D modeling & animation. As much as I was *enthusiastic* about becoming just that, I never actually attempted to do it because of a number of factors, the main one being that it just wasn’t affordable to buy the equipment necessary for me to practice that.

While all this was happening, though, unbeknownst to me I was actually practicing what I would eventually end up finally studying, and hopefully making a career of. I would design all kinds of stuff for both personal and academic use, including mix tape covers, fake newspapers, and even school report covers! I was a graphic designer and I didn’t even know it!

Regardless of that, I entered high school senior year and it became time to pick both a school and a major. Being as ignorant as ever about what exactly I wanted to be, I got the university catalog and skimmed through the majors to find one that had both “computer” and “art” in the title. UC San Diego had just what I was looking for, their major: Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts. It sounded perfect, so I sent my application away, and lo and behold I get in. I was off to UC San Diego in September of 2004.

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