My Life Story

Growing up

I was raised in a Washington, DC suburb called Olney, Maryland, a town with a population of around 40,000. Throughout elementary and middle school, I developed a strong interest in console video games, while also staying very active. I was also deeply into YouTube from a young age and created hundreds of videos between the ages of five and eight, recording gameplay or acting out fictional stories using toys for a small audience. I was heavily inspired by YouTubers who created game walkthroughs and narrative content.

Karate and table tennis

Around the age of seven, I began practicing karate, which I continued until I was about thirteen. At eleven, I discovered table tennis, which quickly became a major part of my life. I progressed from group lessons to private coaching, then to leagues and tournaments across the country, including the U.S. Nationals. At my peak, I trained at least five days a week. I competed seriously until I was around eighteen, when I enrolled at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. At that point, I chose to step away from competitive play — partly due to the difficulty of finding consistent training, but also because I wanted to reduce the stress of constant tournaments and explore other interests that had long taken a back seat.

Building worlds

Alongside sports, I spent much of middle and high school immersed in creative projects. I built entire fictional worlds in my head, creating over one hundred detailed maps complete with cities, geography, and infrastructure. What I loved most about these worlds wasn’t just imagining them — it was designing systems: maps, rules, interactions, and constraints. Some ideas grew into fifty-page outlines for games I hoped to build one day. Computer science felt like a real-world extension of this passion, offering tools to design and build systems that actually function.

Why computer science

I’ve also used YouTube for most of my life as a learning tool, watching educational content to better understand economics, psychology, politics, culture, and sociology. In high school, I took many AP courses and was always obsessed with performing well academically. Another reason I chose computer science was because it was genuinely unfamiliar — many of my other interests felt accessible through self-learning, but CS challenged me in entirely new ways. I wasn’t a childhood coding prodigy; instead, I was drawn to the difficulty and depth of the field.

Finding travel

During high school, I also began playing sports more casually, including volleyball, tennis, badminton, and basketball. At the same time, competitive table tennis introduced me to travel across the United States — places like Puerto Rico, Las Vegas, Fort Worth, Raleigh, Orlando, and New York City. Many of these trips were intense and stressful, often centered around competition, followed by brief opportunities to explore unfamiliar cities. Sometimes I explored with disappointment after losing, and other times with a sense of accomplishment. Together, these experiences sparked a genuine love of travel that eventually led me to study abroad in Dunedin, New Zealand, at the University of Otago.

Today

Today, I am highly active in college sports clubs, especially volleyball and badminton. I am studying Computer Science and Data Analytics, with a focus on building real systems and understanding how they function optimally. I am especially drawn to projects that combine software engineering, data, and real-world impact.

Lessons I’ve learned

I’m still early in my career, but I have already learned a great deal. Through table tennis, I learned how to perform under pressure, handle disappointment even after putting in effort, and remain determined in difficult situations. Just as importantly, I learned that it is okay to let go. I don’t have to be defined by a single pursuit — I can be someone who values multiple interests, from sports and travel to learning and creation. Allowing myself the freedom to explore has been one of the most important lessons of my life.

What I’m looking for

I graduate from Dickinson in May 2027 and am looking for data science and software engineering roles, especially ones where I can build real systems that turn data into decisions. If that sounds like your team, I’d love to hear from you on LinkedIn or by email.