I was born in Minneapolis, MN, USA on May 2, 1984. Living there for only six weeks, we soon moved to Redwood City, CA, where my brother Gaelen was born, then to Baltimore, MD, where my sister Stephanie was born. Right before first grade, we moved to Albuquerque, NM, where we lived for eight years. In Albuquerque, I played soccer and piano, fell in love with Shakespeare in elementary school, went hiking and camping, got into math via MATHCOUNTS and science via Science Olympiads. I constantly indulged myself by reading late into the night, and these nocturnal habits have stuck with me. I was sad to leave the Albuquerque Academy, when we moved to Portland, OR the summer after my eighth grade year, but I came to love my high school, Catlin Gabel, as well.
In high school, I continued my involvement in MATHCOUNTS and began my teaching career by coaching teams at Catlin Gabel and West Sylvan middle schools. I acted and directed in the Catlin theater program, continued my piano studies, climbed Mount Hood, Mount Adams, and Mount Rainier with my Boy Scout troop. Mathcamp encouraged my mathematical aspirations: I kept coming back for more throughout high school. I took four math courses at Reed College, and by the end of high school I had decided to pursue mathematics.
In 2002 I entered the Masschusetts Institute of Technology, finding two homes away from home at Random Hall and ESG. I filled my terms with a smorgasbord of classes, my summers as a counselor at mathcamp and undergraduate research at MIT through UROPs and SPUR. My time at MIT was awesome.
I began my graduate studies at Harvard in the fall of 2006. Details of my graduate studies probably belong elsewhere, but I will mention that I bought a house in the summer of 2007, which means I pay a little bit more attention to this whole mortgage crisis than might otherwise be the case.