Hello.¹

Lend me your attention for but a moment.

I am David Valdes. Refer to me with He/Him pronouns, or, perhaps, as most people refer to me as: “you”, or the equally as popular with teachers, “yes, you”.

I have been a Computer Science major, and then briefly a Mechanical Engineering major, and now once again a Computer Science major. How long I have been at this? I am technically a 3rd year, yet have been around for much longer.

I am a reader of stories, an enjoyer of poetry, and a writer of questionable quality. I find Art and its child, Literature, to be similar; mediums of expression for sharing ideas, descriptions, and even concepts as intangible as emotions. They can enlighten minds to new perspectives, disturb the comforted and comfort the disturbed. These days I personally prefer stories of the eldritch variety, but have enjoyed fantasy novels in the past.

One in particular is The Fire Within by Chris d’Lacey, the first book in a series I enjoyed reading growing up after daydreaming idly on my desk during school lessons.

The series revolves around a tenant named David (kid me loved self-inserting into fantasy stories) who moves into a claymaker’s house and finds out that she could bring clay dragons to life. I remember the hours of night I would spend away with the books in the comfort of my bed under the amber warmth of the lamp’s light, anticipating the delights behind the next page. They almost singlehandedly sparked my interest in fantasy and absolutely singlehandedly sparked my interest in dragons. To this day I still have most of those books stored on a shelf as a reminder of my carefree days, and of my love for a good piece of literature.

1. This is a greeting, please say it back. ↩︎