Where did I come from, and how did I get here?
The Beginning
I was born in 1991. I’m not supposed to expose my age, but it helps paint a picture of the technological landscape in which I grew up.
When I was 6, my family got our first PC, which came loaded with Windows 95. I fastidiously opened and inspected every file, folder, and application on that machine. I explored new programs until I knew all the functions, or until something broke (sorry, Mom and Dad). Once we got Microsoft Office, I spent hours designing newsletters and websites. There was nowhere to publish my work, but I loved the creative process.
Dial-up internet followed a few years later, and with it, extremely slow access to the rest of the world: email, message boards, IRC, and real websites. Now that I was connected, I wanted to build. Equipped with Notepad, Firefox, and library books, I taught myself HTML/XHTML, and later, CSS. I viewed the source code of every interesting website I found, and I coded my own sites from scratch. Then, I organized a class and taught HTML to the other kids in my homeschool co-op.
Yes, homeschool. I’ve always been an autodidact - and a bit of an non-conformist.
Reading, writing, and comprehension came naturally. I was a book worm, and I loved to write. (One summer, I completed several grade levels of spelling and grammar just for fun. I flourish when I can work at my own pace.) I realized early on that writing was a powerful way to share information and ideas.
Teaching HTML to my peers was incredibly energizing. I wanted to help people understand and use technology, and I sensed I could do so through writing and tools like the internet. It would be a while longer before I connected my feelings with the field of technical communication, but I was well on my way.