It came in the form of a collection of small, colorful bricks that I assembled into a spaceship. From my days of playing with Legos to programming on the computer, I have loved to build things. It was only at the beginning of my college career, however, that I discovered I could build anything in my imagination on my laptop. Since then, I've traveled a long way.

I began my first year at UC Berkeley in our intro to computer science course, CS10-The Beauty and Joy of Computing. I knew I had fallen in love when I built a fully autonomous simulator of the card game "Uno!" on a Friday night for fun. When I began the game, it was 5 p.m. When I looked at the clock next, it was 5 in the morning.

My passion for building has only grown since then. I've coded my way through hackathons, side-projects, internships, and even some assigned schoolwork with generous amounts of enthusiasm and coffee. I've built humorous websites, fun games, and now a company that specializes in helping people plan their day.

I'm an Associate Product Manager at Google now, but I'll never forget those Legos and the importance of building great things.