My journey to studying computer science stems from my childhood playing video games. As a young child, I have always enjoyed playing computer games with my siblings. This hobby became the core of many friendships. I appreciated that video games contributed so much to the happiness in my life, and when I learned that video games were created by coding, I was inspired to pursue computer science to bring other people that same happiness.

I was further inspired to make computer science as my passion by my high school's FRC robotics team. I was eager to join the team since making moving robots just sounded cool, and I wanted to help create some awesome and advanced machines. Robotics helped show me the multitude of uses for computer science, from neural networks to computing the robot's path, and my fascination of the unknown pushed me to study artificial intelligence. It also helped build my collaborative skills, and I learned to be proactive and dedicate lots of effort to help my team succeed.

I was inspired to pursue psychology after looking at the widespread emotional and mental health issues with my peers. I personally dealt with some problems with depression and gender dysphoria, and I worried about other friends that were stressed from family, school, or social situations. I was also shy and introverted, and I wondered why I grew up to be different from other people and what makes people tick. After I began studying artificial intelligence, I found the connections between artificial intelligence and psychology to be astonishing, and wonder how we can use psychology to understand more about AI, and vice versa.

I still have a long way to go before the end of my journey, and I can’t wait where the next step leads me!