My Story 

Early Life 

After being born in 2001, I grew up in West Bloomfield Michigan. This is where I stayed until I went to college. In elementary school, I got my first real consoles from a raffle. (I won 2 of them and got a DS and a Wii.) This shaped my life greatly. Before this, I only had a Gameboy which I would play occasionally. After I acquired them, I became addicted to video games. Before school, I would wake up 2 hours early so I could play Mario Party, Fortune Street, or Monopoly. (I am just realizing that these are all board game video games.) I just could not get enough of these types of games. I realized very early that what I wanted to do was to make games for a living. I started to make my own worlds and games using pieces that I had from other games. My best friend and I even created multiple TCGs which we would then print a ton of and fold and staple into packs. Meanwhile, in Middle school, I started to make a bunch of friends through the video games that I played. These bonds that I created still last to this day where I will play online with them states away. My social life was also shaped by the TCG tournaments I would go to. By this point, my tastes in games had become more distinct with me not liking many popular genres like shooters. (Due to being so used to Nintendo.) 

High School

 In high school, I was a very busy person. I played on 2 sports teams while being the captain of varsity tennis. This meant I had to train every week for that. At the same time, I had many AP classes that took up most of my schedule. I had a summer job at a day camp as a counselor assistant and when I turned 18 I got a part-time job at a movie theater. This made it so that free time was a gift and I would use it to watch tv or play games. Around this time, I became a big board game player. I would play all the time with my friends and every day when my dad got home and ate we would play a game with me, my mom, and him. We started going to more game stores on the weekends to look at new games to play. This gave me a true connection to my parents since before we had none of the same interests. In my senior year of high school, I became a competitive Smash Bros. player and would go to multiple tournaments a week. This also helped give me lifelong friendships. 

College 

My college experience was a very strange one due to a certain virus starting my second semester. However, before that, I made a friend group through the Strategy Gaming club and another from my Game Design classes. I also continued to play Smash Bros. competitively and became an officer of Miami Smash club. I started making more games in college too and playing more variety of games. However, during the pandemic, I did not do much besides renovating a house due to me not having a computer for most of it.  After the pandemic, I continued with the same clubs and friends. (With a few new ones.)

Overall

 To sum it up, games helped give me all the connections I have had throughout my life and have honestly brought light into my life. I want to design games because of how much I love them and to give people the connections/escape that they want.