I discovered that I loved tech at 11:30 pm on a Friday night during my Freshman year at Stanford. I had just returned from an evening of creating music with a group of friends and pulled out my laptop to end the night with an episode of 24. But then, suddenly, the Eclipse icon in the bottom right corner of the screen caught my eye.My next project for my intro CS class wasn't due for another week, but--in a brief moment of introspection--I realized that the appeal of creating a Yahtzee program was so much more than that of another episode of 24. I was caught entirely by surprise. Jack Bauer usually did a good job of commanding my attention. But to my shock, I found myself closing the Amazon prime tab and opening Eclipse. The implications of this turn of events are still being realized today. I must say, to this day I still haven't finished that season of 24. Since then, I've focused on becoming a builder. I’ve taught Stanford students CS, developed apps using breaking machine-learning technologies in Stanford research labs, led product initiatives at fast growing startups, built a college dating app that had 10,000+ users (and 20+ marriages), built other apps from scratch in swe internships, and currently work as a full time engineer at Meta.I've realized I'm happiest when I'm actively creating rather than passively observing. I love to learn, and then use what I learn to create--hopefully adding value to the world. This trait reveals itself if just in the number of youtube tutorials in my browser history.