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My digital history dates back to my earliest waking memories. It might have been video games that flipped a switch in my brain and triggered my consciousness. My mother brought home a computer from her work and set up a game from 1993 called Myst. I spent as much time as I possibly could playing Myst. I loved it. Looking back, I didn’t interact with it in any ways that the game considered meaningful, but those interactions were still deeply powerful to me. Exploring a desolate cryptic island opened my eyes to what could be done in digital media.

My next milestone was another simple program my parents installed in that computer, Kid Pix. For those unaware, Kid Pix was a very basic image editing program that was based on simple tools, primarily stamps. It was accessible and user friendly; It allowed kids to create things. While they rarely amounted to much more than refrigerator art, it was still creation.

The next few pieces of my timeline involve writing. Writing has always been an important means of communication and expression for me, and it all started with self-expression about games. Almost all of my important moments of writing and digital interaction are in some way traceable to games.

In high school, I started writing for fun. Mostly in a blog that no longer exists, but also largely on Twitter. Twitter became a very large part of my professional networking, and I quickly built a digital rolodex. Once I started speedrunning and playing competitive fighting games, Twitter became even more important in staying connected with distant friends.

In late 2013, I started doing a little PR in independent games for friends who were showing their work off at festivals and conventions. It’s unclear exactly where this history is leading, in terms of a future career in writing or in PR or one of a number of other options, but the influence of games on my life has been dramatic and it seems unlikely that is going to change.

Not only has digital media become my passion, but it also frames my interactions with other people, both professionally and personally. Twitter has forced me to make my writing public and encouraged brevity. I have spent my whole life trying to find my voice in my writing, and Twitter has perhaps done more than any other singular writing tool to help me develop it.