Personal

In the summer of 2018, I was formally introduced to the world of powerlifting by a friend. Needless to say, I was hooked right off the bat. Pushing for higher numbers was addicting and lifting heavy things felt good. After the first month, I made solid progress towards my ambitious goal of an end of year 225lb bench. (For reference, I was essentially trying to double my bench in 4 months - doable, but pretty unrealistic, especially for my bodyweight.) But, the newbie gains waned and I missed the mark. Overtime, I began to focus less on lifting as heavy as possible and more on general fitness/health. Nowadays, I still try to push my numbers while maintaining a healthy amount of cardio and a good diet.

Sometime in sophomore year of high school, I got really into cooking. Most of my free time went into watching tutorials on YouTube or reading online guides. My parents even got me The Professional Chef, a very large book that some call "the bible for chefs." A lot of blood--knives are sharp, sweat--searing meat requires high heat, and tears--stupid onions, were shed in the process of learning, but now, I'd consider myself a decent cook (at least my mom thinks so)! Some of my favorite dishes to make are medium-rare steaks and traditional Italian pasta dishes.

Ever since I was a kid, I felt pangs of remorse and panic whenever I saw trash littered around, or climate change mentioned on the news. In high school, I spent some time acting on these feelings. This mostly manifested itself in the form of service: on weekends I would volunteer at community events picking up trash and planting trees. I ended up forming a small youth group to volunteer at local parks and arboretums. I even spent time extensively researching carbon sequestration to halt climate change. Now at college, I've placed a larger focus on my other passion, CS, but one day, I hope to combine the two and make a real change in the world.

During middle school, I played trumpet for the school's jazz band. I still remember the first rehearsal where the foreign sounds of the drum set and bass euphonically held time for the swinging wind section. It was magical. Although I didn't join jazz band in high school, I still listened to it almost on a daily basis for homework. I even had frequent improv sessions with my private teacher way after I quit. Even today, jazz is still a staple in my day to day soundtrack.

There's not much to say here: I grew up with video games and it was a constant throughout my entire life, even today. It has been a good way to satiate my competitive drive and practice mastery. Of course, my brother's protests of me mastering video games instead of real life skills were perfectly valid, but hey, at least now I can beat 99% of the population in Super Smash Bros.