My Upbringing
I was raised in McCreary County, KY, in a small town called Whitley City just one county over!
I've lived there my whole life, except that one time we randomly moved to San Antonio, Texas for a year when I was about 6.
It was there, actually, that i really found my love for all things computers and online.
My step sister showed me all her favorite games, and from there on out I was obsessed.
I've used the family laptop for as long as I can remember, where I would play many highly sophisticated games,
here were some of my favorites:
- Roblox
- Minecraft
- Wizard101
- Purple Place
As you can tell, I had great taste. I most definitely tried to install minecraft mods on our laptop,
and yes, they were most definitely viruses. Sorry mom. I just wanted a Pokemon in minecraft.
I currently still live in Whitley and commute to Cumberlands through out the week, which is about a 30 minute drive.
It sucks having 8 AM classes.
My Interest in Technology
Since I was on the internet from a pretty young age, I grew up with computers and sorta got to watch tech evolve as time went on.
I loved the creativity that people had with what they created online, whether it was youtube videos, websites, or games.
There are so many ways to create things with modern technology. I wanted to participate too, but I was particuarly interested in
how things were actually made, not just what was made using specific software/platforms with a friendly UI.
I was a little too dumb to understand things like that in my younger years, but I began to explore it more as I grew up.
I learned how to code some, create simple websites, how the internet vaguely worked, and I picked up some more interests along
the way. Now, I'm currently interested in cyber security, robotics, and embedded systems, though I still have a lot
to learn in order to fully understand them.
How I use the Internet
I'm sure most of us can agree that the internet has become crucial part of daily life nowadays.
All of our schoolwork is online, communcation is done almost exclusively through phone or email, and even getting a job
requires some sort of interaction with the internet.
Though I love the internet and technology, this was a difficult change for me regarding school. I personally enjoy paper and pencil
school work, as it's much easier to focus on things in reality than on my computer with my ADHD. There are far too many distractions
online for me, but I know it's simply how things are now, so I gotta get used to it.
Outside of school work, I love being online for both entertainment and learning. There are infinite things to play, watch,
and learn on the internet. It's easy to endlessly doomscroll or binge watch tv, so I try to balance it out by learning about things
I'm interested in as well, so I feel more productive. Overall, I'm chronically online, which can be both a good and bad thing, and
I think finding a healthy balance between the internet and real life is crucial, but something many of us struggle with.
That's why I'm doing computer science. lol.
