One of the most common questions I get asked by people of all races and creeds is, "What made you get so involved in Indian culture?"
It's a valid question. There are many who like the music, the food, the art, the history, but usually these people like little subsections of India and don't have some fervor or passion to delve deep into all aspects of desi life.
When I'm having a conversation with someone its fun to explain it anecdotally, but I've been thinking about what I want to express in this blog and where to take it into 2013 so I thought the best way to start would be a multi-part introduction to myself as its writer and to analyze exactly what the recipe was in my life to go from Small Town American Girl From the South to Ecclectic Exciting Engineer in Seattle Who Promotes Bollywood Dancing and Indian Culture.
That is quite a journey and it has provided certain challenges in my life both personal and professional. I think I want to share some of them in the future and this background I will be providing will give insight to why I feel certain ways.
I speak a lot and am usually never concise. I will try to give an abridged version of the first 28 years of my life to catch up to the events which I think most strongly influenced my path.
I grew up on a barrier island on the southwest coast of Florida. You can see where my house was here.
Growing up here meant in order to visit friends, go to school, or anything on the mainland I needed to get into a boat, and then a car to go anywhere. It was always a challenge making plans to do anything. I was somewhat isolated, despite being social. In retrospect I've always had a duality in my personality, one which loves and thrives being on my own and finding ways of being creative and amusing myself, and the other which desperately loves the company and attention of others and wants to be the life of every party.
I excelled in school and got my first personal computer at home when I was in 6th grade. Using it through high school inspired me to go to college to study computer engineering (and play copious amounts of video games). I graduated in 2008 from University of Central Florida as a computer engineer. No, really, I have proof :)
It was difficult finding work when I graduated so in 2009 I moved to Seattle to find a job. I thought I had to go where the work was and Seattle has a very focused tech corridor since theres Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Expedia, AT&T, Samsung, Tmobile, etc. The list goes on.
Finally my first job was working as a contractor doing software testing for AT&T. With an extreme sense of smalltown girl just made it in the big city, I was about to begin a journey not even I could have dreamed of...
