Autobiography

I’m double-majoring in English and Geology and I tend to get a lot of questions about why. I get it. I mean, they’re not related in the slightest and to anyone that knows me well, I don’t come across as a science person. I’ve been writing creatively since I was in first grade and sure, I’ve always kind of liked science but it was never my favorite subject or anything. I used to write stories and send them to my grandma who would then “self-publish” them into little booklets that I still have. 

Up until highschool I never did science projects for fun or anything. I still didn’t throughout highschool, either, really. However, in 9th grade I had the best chemistry teacher and it became my favorite subject. I joined science club and participated in science bowl and helped out with the annual science festival that occurred in my hometown. I suddenly started to consider majoring in chemical engineering. And then I took physics. My physics teacher killed my thought of majoring in a science. So I didn’t. I stuck with English. I had known since I was little that English was my favorite subject and there wasn’t any other option that I wanted to take. So I decided on English. 

I was taking a tour of NAU when the tour guide motioned to the geology building and made one of the worst puns I’ve ever heard. “This is the geology building, it really rocks” and just like that I knew I wanted to minor in geology. I wanted to make bad puns based off my studies. You can only make so many puns based off what you learn in English class, but rocks? Chert full of opportunities. After a semester of studying as an English major and a geology minor, I discovered that I actually really loved learning about geology and decided to upgrade my minor to a major. So now I’m a double-major and I get to make all the bad rock puns I want to. The downside to being a double-major, however, is that I’m not entirely sure when I’m going to graduate. I most likely won’t graduate within four years, but I’m not sure if I’ll need a full fifth year. The best guess that I have is December 2022. 

I’m taking this course because in the long run, it will supposedly help me out when writing in the future. I want to be positive about this course, but so far it hasn’t taught me anything I didn’t already know. I took AP literature and AP English language in highschool, along with honors classes of both. I’ve also taken ENG 205 here at NAU so I’m highly familiar with rhetoric and using it to write academically. I personally don’t find academic and nonfiction writing fun or interesting for the most part. The only nonfiction story I’ve ever enjoyed was Father and Son by Edmund Gosse, which was a memoir that I had to read for a British literature class I took last spring (ENG 232). I would like to become less cynical about nonfiction and rhetoric, because while I do recognize the usefulness, it’s hard to convince my brain that it won’t be the worst thing that I could possibly do with my time.

I mentioned that I’ve been writing creatively since first grade, and since then I’ve vastly improved my methods. In highschool I started a novel in eleventh grade and I’ve been steadily working on that since then. I’ve also started several other projects since then that I’m really excited for. I’ve rarely gone a day without at least thinking about my stories, even if I haven’t actively worked on them. I’ve always had the hardest time describing myself without mentioning my writing, purely because it’s been a part of me for so many years that it’s just what I am. I’m a writer. 

Outside of writing, however, I do, surprisingly, have other interests and hobbies. I started learning how to read tarot cards and do other divination methods in highschool. I enjoy doing tarot readings because they’re fun and they’re advice, nothing more. I’m also a certified farm boy. I was raised on a farm in Indiana, and I know way too many fun facts about chickens, such as the fact that they’re omnivores and will eat their own eggs. Since I was a kid, I’ve always been fascinated with swords and fencing. Most of my sword knowledge is centered around the middle ages/medieval times/Arthurian legend time periods, and I finally found a place to learn fencing. I now take a fencing class at the HLC every Tuesday and Thursday and it’s so much fun. I also got my first sword last summer. I was hanging out with some friends at the mall in my hometown and we were standing around talking and I mentioned that I really wanted a sword and my friend immediately asked if I wanted one of hers, since she collects them. So I of course said yes. Over winter break I took my Christmas money and went and bought a longsword at an antiques/thrift store and it’s such a beautiful sword. They both stay at my mom’s house and sit between my bed and my nightstand.