Notes

My parents were always busy growing up, so I found my solace in video games. On the car ride to and from school, in after-school daycare, or when my mom brought me dinner with her friends I would play on my DS, and when I was home, I would watch playthroughs of video games on my ipad. I barely had friends at school and none outside of it, and I was rarely brought anywhere outside, so it was my main source of entertainment. Sometime around fourth grade, I started copying pictures. Some of these pictures were from a My Little Pony book I had gotten, though others were Dokapon Kingdom classes printed out so I could copy during school. Rarely, I would try to make my own pokemon, with pitiful results.

Due to my lack of friends - and apparently me being bullied, something I have no recollection of - I moved schools in fifth grade. In this new school, I met a friend, who I will call Arin, that introduced me to a website called Quotev. On it, I wrote a few stories that never went anywhere. However, it sparked my love for creating characters. Of course, throughout this same time, I was still drawing, repurposing the back of my math notebook's 3 ring binder as my first sketchbook. Since I would finish classwork quickly, the rest of my class time was spent daydreaming, doodling, and writing about my characters. I made many different "universes" of characters and stories during my first school year alone.

A few years later, I grew an interest in roleplaying. I joined a few groups on Quotev and instantly fell in love with it. People would create characters and write how they would react, detailing paragraphs upon paragraphs on the way they moved, acted, and thought. These groups provided the setting, plot, and roles that people would fulfill, and together, they would create their own story. Until the group died, of course, but there was always more. Roleplaying helped me improve my writing, character creation, and even drawing skills by leaps and bounds. It also sparked an interest in more unexpected topics, like psychology and biology, as I researched ways for my characters to feel more alive.

I applied to Bergen Tech for more practical reasons than prestigious ones, as my mom said we'd have to move if I didn't, though even then, I was ecstatic when I got in. Up until that point, I had little reference for how my art compared to others, with my friends, both online and offline, either older and much farther in their art journeys than me, or didn't have much knowledge about art. It was an eye-opening experience to be able to see art from other kids my age and made me more determined than ever to become better at art. Of course, even with a new school and more classwork than ever, I still roleplayed. In fact, during the pandemic, it was one of things that kept me invigorated even through falling grades and little motivation for homework.

After many years, I still love video games and want to give back to the thing that kept me company for so long when I was young, so I want to work in the video game industry one day. Even if I can't, I hope to help create stories that can give entertainment and joy to others, just as it has to mine.
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When I was little, I always loved video games. On the car ride to and from school, in after-school daycare, or when my mom brought me dinner with her friends I would play on my DS, and when I was home, I would watch playthroughs of video games on my ipad. They were my main source of entertainment, and I had fun playing through them. Sometime around fourth grade, I started copying pictures. Some of these pictures were from a My Little Pony book I had gotten, though others were Dokapon Kingdom classes printed out so I could copy during school.

Around fifth grade, I moved schools. Here, I gained new friends and grew an interest in writing stories. I was still drawing, repurposing the back of my math notebook's 3 ring binder as my first sketchbook. Since I would finish classwork quickly, the rest of my class time was spent daydreaming, doodling, and writing about my characters. I made many different "universes" of characters and stories during my first school year alone. In later years, this interest only grew, with me greatly improving my writing, character creation, and even drawing skills in the process. It also sparked an interest in more unexpected topics, like psychology and biology, as I researched ways for my characters to feel more alive.

I applied to Bergen Tech for more practical reasons than prestigious ones, as my mom said we'd have to move if I didn't, though even then, I was ecstatic when I got in. Up until that point, I had little reference for how my art compared to others, with my friends either older and much farther in their art journeys than me, or didn't have much knowledge about art. It was an eye-opening experience to be able to see art from other kids my age and made me more determined than ever to become better at art. Of course, even with a new school and more classwork than ever, I still wrote. In fact, during the pandemic, it was one of things that kept me invigorated even through falling grades and little motivation for homework.

After many years, I still love video games and want to give back to the thing that kept me company for so long when I was young, so I want to work in the video game industry one day. Even if I can't, I hope to help create stories that can give entertainment and joy to others, just as it has to mine.