getting behind a cause

this is my story

My love for design spawned from my older brother, a professional artist, who always encouraged my creativity. While growing up with an artist in the home, I was consistently asked to share my opinion of his work. Which through time, compelled me to pay attention to all the small details. This also meant designer programs, like the adobe suite, were at my finger tips. As annoying as it may have been, my brother would always let me mess around on his computer to explore and learn programs like Illustrator and Photoshop.

I was never a great student, with my dyslexia I constantly was daydreaming and struggled to focus on my work. Every day I could not wait for the moment to come home and play video games, like Battletoads, Goldeneye, and Halo. I went as far as purchasing Halo 2 at midnight so I could play all morning before the school bus arrived.

Throughout my childhood education, I was continually forced to think about college and my future career. I remember in middle school being forced to take a personality test that would spit out recommendations of what would be good career paths for me to pursue. No matter how hard I tried space cowboy, full time vacationer, and professional gamer would never be in the results. Since playing video games wasn't a "real" career choice, I figured I would make them.

I entered into college pursuing a degree in computer science with a focus in game design. During my first semester I came to the realization that this focus was brand new to the school and instantly knew the "education" was nothing more then a waste of time, not to mention overpriced! So I once again had to dive deep into possible career choices that included both my love for programming and creativity. Eventually this lead me to web design and that was the best choice I could have made.

I stay connected to the industry on daily basis by following, reading, and watching leaders in the industry such as Chris Coyer, Una Kravets, Chris Do/The Futur, and Brand Frost.  I also make it a goal to attend and be involved with events/conferences such as An Event Apart, Meetups, Creative South and Wordcamp. Today, I am still enjoying web design and I continue to level up my skills.