I have always listened to music, and I was curious about how music made me feel and the process of making music on my own. I wanted to combine my personal tastes to create something unique and something that could evoke emotion and that people could connect with. Over the past year, I have gone from only listening and knowing nothing about making music, to achieving a deeper understanding of music production. As a new producer, I decided that the best way to learn was to just set a goal and spend time working towards it. For me, making music provided an escape from the two dimensional environment in school, where answers are either right or wrong.

I still remember building my first computer with my dad. All of the agonizing over parts and compatibility all had led up to this moment. The sigh of relief when everything worked and the computer booted up for the first time quickly turned into an unrelenting eagerness to explore the possibilities. Although I was in sixth grade and used it to play games, that computer was the first of many that I would use to discover and pursue my interest in computer science. My first taste of computers in a school setting was taking an introductory course (9th grade), which taught me about technical terms and the inner workings of computers, but more importantly I learned how to problem solve, troubleshoot and publish my classwork. This experience helped me in my own personal endeavors, because I had started working on my own heads up display for a video game. A heads-up display (HUD) is the method by which information is communicated to the player as part of a game's user interface. I used techniques that I learned in class to identify problems and find solutions when my HUD wouldn't work. More importantly, just like in school, I created a repository to save and showcase my work so far. However, my class could not have possibly prepared me for making a HUD. For this game, a custom HUD is written in a unique programming language, and is far more files than I had ever written or edited in class. I asked others for help online and gradually began to make progress. During this process, I realized the importance of community and collaboration. Without the help of others, I would not have been able to finish this project. I wanted to give back to those who had helped me, so I published my work on an online forum, and received valuable feedback in return. Recently my HUD reached 16,000 downloads and 100,000 views. While experimenting with computers started as a hobby, it enabled me to pursue my interests, further my academic studies in computer science, and find a career path.