Father. I am a proud father of 4 smart, hard working, precocious children. They have defined my life for the last 10 years. Though people try to tell you, there’s no words that can describe how much you love your children. A small accomplishment like a perfect math test or a hit in a baseball game can overwhelm you with joy. Nothing else in this world can compare. My children are also my anchor. When times get tough, I look at them and realize again that I must endure for them. As a parent I want to ensure that not only I can provide them a good childhood, but also be a strong example on how to live a meaningful life.

Husband. I met my wife my senior year of college. Admittedly at the time I met her I was a bumbling computer nerd lacking direction and ambition. Weeks before graduation I beamed with joy as I explained a job opportunity that I had with Intel. The job was working in regional BestBuy stores as an Intel representative. Looking back I am baffled why I would think that was a good job for a guy with a Bachelors in Computer Science. My future wife heard this and said, “You’re going to be working at BestBuy?”. In her unique way my wife steered me away from the opportunity. Weeks later I had interviewed with a small software startup and within days I was hired. My life since has been filled with many successes, mostly due to my wife, pushing me to be my best self. I wouldn’t be where I am today without her.

Engineer. There was a time when I didn’t like computers, frustrated that I couldn’t understand how they worked. Then around my tenth year, my parents bought a Windows x286 machine. I spent hours on that machine, figuring out how to install/patch programs, breaking it, then figuring out how to fix it. It was a love affair that’s lasted through high school, college, and a successful career. Today I get to work on fun problems for successful companies making a good living. The way I look at it, I’m living the dream. Of course, as an engineer I am never fully satisfied. I’m always searching for how to do things better, whether it’s learning new libraries, languages, or developing my own open source projects. I expect my love affair with computers will last a lifetime.

Dreamer. The excitement I get from a cool idea, crunching the possibilities in my head is part of who I am. To this day I still have this sense of magic and wonder about our world. I enjoy sitting quietly thinking out how I would develop a piece of software, write a treatise on politics, or formulating fictional stories and pieces of music.