Welcome back my weird fans who want to know too many personal details about me! Today I unveil more aspects about my young life. I’ll start by tying the loop about my early education, and then we’ll jump into middle school and some of the challenges I faced there. If you’re just joining, make sure to start with Part 1 of the series here. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the read!
Nerds Make Good Students
It should come as no surprise to people that I put little faith in formal education. But let’s not waste time on that -I’ll make a post at some point in the future outlining specifically why that’s the case. The thing to understand is, despite my low opinions of the process, I was a good student by established standards. From early on, I got S’s (because A’s weren’t a thing in those early grades), and as I got older and I grew even more apathetic about grades, I still remained primarily an A-student.
Not only did I get mostly A’s, but I excelled in standardized testing too. The school I attended used the ITBS test. When I was younger, I regularly scored around the 99-percentile in every subject of this test. But as I grew older, I started to drift back in reading/writing. By the time I reached middle school, I was still in the 99-percentile in things like math and logic, but I was closer to 80% in some of those non-scientific subjects. In fact, the one class I didn’t get A’s in during middle school was English.
It was strange to find out just last year when my parents were selling their house that they found one of my old ITBS tests (do all mother’s save worthless old school documents?). In that test, it actually recommended I get into the field that I currently work in: data analytics. So, how did someone like me end up becoming an author? To answer that, it might be time to really address one of the most influential events in my childhood.
My Mother’s Accident
When it comes to female role models, I grew up with the best of the best. See, my mother was in a car accident when I was just nine years old. And that car accident left her completely disabled. Not only was she unable to walk. Sitting for any length of time was extraordinarily painful. The scope of the injury left her basically bed-bound, and for a while she needed help to even use the bathroom.
This set me up for two amazing role models really. My mother, who never stopped being there for my siblings and me. And my father, who pushed through it all, working full time, raising four kids, and taking care of his disabled wife. I learned what it means to be devoted in a marriage, and I learned what it is to have faith. I don’t want to linger too much on this because it’s not my story to tell. But suffice it to say, my mother is a powerful inspiration and a living embodiment of strength and courage.
Naturally, this had an impact on me as I grew from elementary school into middle school. It’s probably one of the reasons I was able to be such a recluse, playing video games like I talked about last week, and reading books as I got older. And I think it ties into the next major development, which would be the most profound precursor to me creating Evorath.
Middle School and Online Friends
I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up. Future post number two: I’ll eventually talk about bullying in my childhood and how that has shaped me. I really can’t stand bullies, but let’s not get distracted! See, leading up to middle school I did have a few friends. But being a private school kid, when I moved into middle school, those few friends I had left one-by-one. By the time I was in 7th grade, I had no one left. And that led me to the world wide web.
Beyond playing Civilization, Red Alert, and Final Fantasy games, I found an online game called Adventure Quest. I was even one of the first 1000 players in the game, a fact I was way too proud of in my young age. But I got involved with that community, and it led me to other communities. What were those communities about? Roleplaying.
I was thrust into the exciting world of text-based roleplaying. I’d write events for my story, another person across the country would write what happens with his character, then someone else would write about hers, and we’d go around telling a story piece-by-piece. It’s a great way to develop your writing abilities. In fact, by the time I got to high school, I went from being weak in English to it becoming my strongest subject.
This online roleplaying became a big part of my life. I’d be on mIRC chatting with my friends from these forums. Eventually, I was made a moderator on the much larger Adventure Quest roleplaying forum. Again, a little feather in my undeveloped cap! But for once, I felt accepted. Psychobabble hat on, I’d say an underlying reason for my love of fantasy is exactly that; I found a community where I fit right in and could unabashedly be myself!
The Birth of Evorath
And that’s why I believe all these first 5 parts of this auto-biographical blog series led to the inevitable birth of Evorath. From my childhood imagination, to my Lego world-building, my love of fantasy video games, my introduction to reading high fantasy, and my introversion leading me to online role-playing…it was a series of events that had one logical conclusion. My imagination was overflowing with fantastic creatures. A world full of magic and wonder was inside me, waiting to see the light of day.
Next week, we’ll continue this by talking about the challenges I faced in high school and how I started to put pen to paper and actually map out the world of Evorath. Until then, enjoy a good fantasy book or two. I’ll see you next week for part 6!
