Everyone has a story. This is mine.
Unfortunately, my story is about loving stories, which makes it super boring. But for the sake of a good yarn let's spin it as a cautionary tale about a dangerous obsession that's led to lies, delusions, and poor eyesight.
The addiction started early. At eleven months, I took my first steps while my enabler parents held out a book like a carrot on a stick. (Also, look how awesome my dad is - he saved me from falling on my own sock even while he lured me in with pictures of farm animals.)
As my steps grew surer, I tottered down the slippery slope from pictures to words to chapters to series. I kept roving and reading, always seeking that next fix. Those black squiggles on the pages made my heart stutter and my mind hallucinate.
Then the lies began. All through elementary school, I pretended I was afraid of the dark so I could have a nightlight to read by. I under-reported my minutes for mandatory school reading challenges. When my own books were taken away for wrongdoings, I stole new ones from my parents' shelves.
My imagination also spiraled out of control. At the age of eight, I became convinced that I could communicate telepathically with animals. (Coincidentally, I had just discovered the Redwall series.) I wandered the wetlands in my Northern California hometown, keeping a field journal on the thoughts and personalities of ducks and dragonflies.
These Thoreau-like tendencies of writing and hanging out in nature live on to this day. So does a certain unhingedness that I hope comes off as more amusing than cringeworthy.
What happened when books were no longer enough...
Over time, my tolerance to books increased and it became harder to find content that gave me the same highs. I made the startling discovery that people also have stories, and not just that weird breed of people who call themselves authors. And places have their own tales to tell, too! Fantasy world-building is great and all, but there was a whole world I hadn’t yet explored.
It also seemed that many stories would no longer be told on dead trees but on screens. I'd read enough sci-fi to make me want to push toward that so-called singularity and see where it takes us.
So I searched for novelty through travel and technology, though always with a book within arm's reach. I wanted the real world and my fantasy worlds to combine in an augmented reality of my own making.
At age twenty-one, after years cementing my role as a socially-inept nerd, I graduated early with a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley. I took the time I otherwise would have spent in school to bounce around the globe and blow the rest of my babysitting/internship money, like the rash and spoiled child I was am.
During those six months, I lived a fairy tale life swimming with wild dolphins in the Bahamas and bungy jumping in New Zealand.
In 2012, I moved to Seattle to work as a firmware engineer on Xbox accessories and a line of fitness wearables, still sparing time for nearby adventures. In the process, I developed a passion for using geeky stories to motivate my fitness and taking long walks to find the world's best reading spots.
Shortly after becoming a senior software engineer at age 26, my project was canceled and I realized the time had come to start a new chapter of my life. I hit the road again, and this time I have no idea where it will take me.
Now I tell my own stories.
I started my blog, TheRovingReader, as an attempt to uncover/invent meaning in my life by turning my experiences into shareable stories.
Or at least that's my highbrow justification for writing stuff down and taking pictures so I don't forget everything. After cramming so many books in my head, my brain is like a sponge that has been wrung out too many times. It's no longer absorbent and is teeming with useless-fact-bacteria.
I’m super excited to participate in the Steemit community. (I never thought I'd see a cryptocurrency based on a social network!) I’ll be re-posting some of my travel tales and sharing new content. But above all, I want to discover your story.
Welcome!! that's one positive addiction to have!
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Yay for manual upvote! Boo for bots!
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Welcome to steemit.
If you want to read a historical fiction novel that I wrote for free, you can read it here, just be warned it will open your eyes to a lot of evil that is going on in society. Link: https://archive.org/details/TheLostTruth
Video on my YouTube channel about the book:
Woah, a whole web novel, I'm impressed! Looks like a good way to express your ideas.
WOW this was such an awesome first post for your introduction I love it! I wish more people took the time and care as you did. Welcome to the Steemit community Katie great to have you with us.
What type of programming do you do and is it for yourself or a company?
Thank you so much! I was doing embedded C programming at Microsoft but I haven't committed myself to another company since then. I'm playing with some high-level C#/Xamarin stuff now for apps and games, but to be honest I'm a bit distracted by being able to go outside whenever I want.
I love it. My twenties were not so long ago. And I am forever grateful that I quit a career track in medicine before year two. What a waste my certain passions would have been on something I don't even believe in, in the traditional sense. Good for you, enjoying life. I have children now and would not surrender this good life for one second, one indulgence. However, when reminiscing upon the previous decade, it was the best of time and the best of any worst times. Now, I will follow you and live vicariously through you in the opposing corner of the Pacific Northwest! Steem on!
I really really like your story. You are great at writing! I can't wait to follow you! We are also on the open road my family and I touring North America in our 42 ft fifth wheel. We are not living the normal way and it keeps life super exciting. We LOVE meeting people and yes, everyone has A STORY! We love that!
YES! Thank you for the compliments. North America is perfect to explore on wheels. I've been on two month-long road trips in my home country this year and can't get enough of it, it's sooo cool that you're doing that as a family.
Welcome to Steemit! Just as a tip, you may wish to include a verification picture of yourself holding a Steemit sign for example just to confirm that you are in fact the owner of the blog you mentioned.
Nice to have you here!
Thanks! Verification picture added!
Your story is incredibly inspiring and somehow I feel like I'm you a few years back with some twists, haha!
I am studying IT, working on a novel, worked in sales and I love some good stories!
Really look forward to reading more!
Hehe, thank you! Good luck with your book - I would love to read it someday! (I mean, I'll read anything, but do try your best to make it good)
Welcome to Steem @therovingreader I have upvoted and sent you a tip
love your intro - I talk to animals too, so I understand where you're coming from. Your story is very similar to mine except I don't swim with dolphins or bungee jump or engineer software...hmm, well anyway, we seem to have a lot in common :)
Haha, all those things are incidentals. Glad to find another kindred animal-communicating spirit!
I realized today I act the same with my pets as I did with my kids - I always cuddle them and feed them first :)
You seem like a cool person so I'll follow you. I'm a writer too and always looking for people to share ideas and stories with. Enjoy Steemit!
You seem cool too. Followed back!
:)
Fantastic intro post. From one storyteller to another, welcome to the best site for creatives on the web! I'll be following, and wishing you Godspeed.
Thanks! I like your one-paragraph story hooks. It's like a lighter version of this thing my boyfriend and I do where we set a timer for one hour and have to write a short story in that time (we call it Lightning Story Round and it's surprising what comes out).
Fantastic idea. Amazing what's in there, in our minds, an inexhaustible store of tales. We think there's a limit, but there isn't. We just have to keep going past the point where we think there's no more in there. That's where creativity lives.
what a beautiful story and writing. can't wait to see more of your stories in here. followed you too :)
I wish you a great time here!Welcome, @therovingreader, to Steemit! I too have a passion for reading. When I was in my teens I had only the weekend usually to read books because the rest of my time was taken up with school. I would take out half a dozen books on Friday and read every chance I had all weekend long. It was "the great escape" from an arduous week of studying.
The perfect weekend! Sounds like you were a more responsible student than me (especially when World of Warcraft sunk its claws in).
Well, back in those days we had the 3 R's .....reading, radio, and recreation for amusement :)
Classic! Now we have the billion every-letter-of-the-alphabet's. Freedom can be overwhelming.
Wow, sounds like you've lived quite the adventure so far! I was actually working as a software engineer too up until age 29, when my wife and I decided we needed less deadlines and shiny new things and more experiences in our life. That's when our addiction to travel began! Glad to see another fellow traveler on Steemit ✌️Good luck here and with your blog! We'll be following along.
Shiny new experiences > shiny new things. Looks like you guys are having an awesome adventure too!
Welcome Therovingreader its good to see more people around. Have fun in this community. I wish you many followers and new friends :-) Cheers @chrisx
welcome here @Therovingreader! Nice post, i will follow your account, please follow me...
Welcome to Steemit @therovingreader :)
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I love your picture with that beautiful sun bird, welcome to steemit dear friend @therovingreader, I've met with good friends by searching 'introduceyourself' tag, i love newbies and delight in giving them a hand of friendship. Love from @maxdevalue, am sending some steem to your wallet right away, welcome on-board! Your contribution is needed here in steemit.
I wish you well, take time and lookout for people of like-mind, make new friends especially minnows and newbies of same interest, grow together and support each other, that's the secret here, don't be carried away by those that has made it with huge followers and big up votes, Rome was not built in a day, one step at a time, never follow people because they are popular rather follow people of like passion because they're likely the people that'll value your posts and up vote them, take time and construct good comment on any post that you like and value, don't be fast to post too many posts in a day, 2 to 4 is okay for the day but make sure they're nice and educative and you ready to reply all comment no matter how insignificant it might be, there are more to learn as time goes on. I care for you.
Thanks for your advice, fellow minnow!
you're welcome.
Welcome
Thank you!
Welcome to Steemit @therovingreader! I love your intro and story. Thank you for sharing! Have fun and enjoy Steemit. <3
Thank you!
RESTEEMED!!
Following!
Welcome and nice to meet you.
Please follow me @patricksanlin and upvote. Thanks
BTW, you'll be featured on Best of Steemit in about twenty minutes. Won't bring you much, but it's what I have to give.
Sweet, thanks again!
My girlfriend had similar stories of having to lie about how much she read and being scolded by teachers for reading too much outside of the classroom. I remember pretending I didn't know the answer to questions because I didn't want to be a know it all outcast. It's hard to feel shortchanged when I've been lucky enough to get every opportunity possible, but I can't help but think all 3 of us grew up a generation too early, and I wish it was cooler to be a nerd when I was 7 than it was back then.
Any favorite stories you've written that we should read?
It sounds like your girlfriend and I would be friends! I agree, it's fun talking to young nerds now who are more self-assured and connected. I'm glad we're living in this time, even if we missed out earlier. Stay tuned for more stories and thanks for your interest!
Welcome to Steemit, Katie! :)
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STOPHello @therovingreader This was an amazing introducemyself post!!
I'm @andyluy and I've been here for a couple of weeks, a can tell youThat steemit is the most amazing thing I've ever seen at the internet so far. I'm happy seeing it grows every day!
I had some hard time on the firsts week, so I spent some time searching information to improve my experience with steemit, latter I've decided to make posts about those things in order to help the new ones to have a shortcut to get deeper on steemit.
here is some of my posts, I hope It mitght be helpful to you:
The Randowhale
Getting videos from facebook
Minnowssupport!
Randowhale update 1
I intend to keep posting useful info that I may be able to gather, and in a near future some give away. Feel invited to follow me and if you have any question about steemit you can ask me in any of my last posts, I'll try my best to help.
Welcome and Thank You for being with us!! Following your Blog now
Hi Katie! Thanks for sharing ! Cool photos!
Nice introduction @therovingreader! Welcome to steemit. :)
welcome to steemit :)
Hello @therovingreader. Looks like you are off to a good start. Lol. There are tons of things to read on steemit. Having a platform to write on also awakens something in you. Here's the first post I did that left me feeling an amazing sense of pride because I hadn't written on so long. It's an old post you don't need to upvote it. It didn't get much reviews but I shared it with my friends and they loved it. Especially cause they knew the characters in the story. Lol Tell me what you think. https://steemit.com/funny/@dreamingirwin/a-few-random-descions-led-me-to-the-zoltar
It does look like I'm in the right place for stories! Thanks for sharing yours, I left you a comment and hope to read more in the future.
You've done so much at a young age. Following your blog and story Katie welcome to steemit
Thank you @mrblock!
Hi @therovingreader! it's good to meet a new steemian.
Welcome! Great intro post! Upvoted and following. I look forward to reading your stories in the future!
Thanks, fellow traveler!
And If you like free writing I am doing a weekly series on it! Feel free to do yours :DWelcome to Steemit! If you enjoy stories and fiction do check out #fiction #story really good stories there!
Sweet! I like how you're doing your writing in English and Spanish... bonus language practice for me!
Thanks! On what wearables did you worked in xbox? Back then I used to play a lot of 360 and I am kinda curious :p
I worked on the Xbox One controller, then was part of the Health division when it was created to make the fitness Band.
NICE! I really loved the design on the controller, it upgrade it from the last one and they are both great
Your post was mentioned in my hit parade in the following category:Congratulations @therovingreader!
Looking forward to your stories.
I too previously had a background in the digital world, firstly with assembler (8bit, 16bit), graphics and animation, and then finally web development. I know how it is when the projects you are contracted for, suddenly disappear... along with the money they owe you.
Now, like you, I am engaged full time in my creative pursuits. I tell stories with paintings. You know, a picture is worth a 1000 words. =)Welcome aboard @therovingreader!
Another technical creative! (And man, I'm glad I barely had to touch assembler.) Your paintings are otherwordly, I'll be following along with those too.
I was really geeky at the time and enjoyed hardware register bashing with assembler. But, now I'm glad that is the past.
Cheers, and more creative power to you, full Steem aheah @therovingreader. =)
Haha, I guess that's a different perspective - I only had to go into assembler when stuff was going really wrong in the firmware, so it was always with an ounce of dread.
I started out in the good old days of the C64 and Amiga. There were no game engines or libraries to reuse. You had to write it all from scratch, or reverse engineer other people's work.
In a way I still do that today, I reverse engineer other people's paintings to figure out their techniques. ;-)
Reverse engineering is an excellent skill to have!
Is blogging your main/full time thing these days?
Welcome Katie
A new Steemian :-) hello @therovingreader I hope you enjoy your time here, its a great community ! Nice post, Wish you much luck! I will follow your account. Don't hesitate to contact or follow me at any time :-) See you around @tradewonk
I love it! My eyesight has been affected from reading too. In fact, I am now legally blind without the aid of glasses/contacts. My prescription is -7.00 (if you are familiar with Rx numbers). I can still see things very up close...like books...right next to my face.
Oh my goodness, I can only imagine! My eyes are at -3.25 and I already have a difficult time getting around without corrective lenses. At least we can still read (and thank you for reading)!
Welcome to the community. your introduction was very nice. Followed. Follow me back 😘
firm handshake Hello!