I am the biological sum of forty-two chromosomes, and yet there is only one of me on this planet. I am unique. I am a thinking individual with the courage and freedom to make my own decisions. I have the intelligence to reap the benefits from the good decisions I make and the strength to learn from the repercussions of my wrong choices. I am a survivor. From the day I was born, three months premature and not expected to live more then twenty-four hours, I have survived and chosen to leave my mark upon this world. I choose to make a difference. I choose to be remembered.
     I am a philosopher who knows the language of dreams and a madman who can escape to the worlds I create in my head. I understand the value of art and literature in a society, a culture, and an individual. I read and write and see and draw because I love to, and to do otherwise would violate who I am. I am a scientist, currently studying chemistry and hoping one day to enter into the field of chemical engineering, who searches constantly for the truth and never stops asking questions, because as Frank Lloyd Wright said, "The truth is more important than the facts." I have studied under Leonardo da Vinci, Plato, Marie Curie, Aristotle, Rutherford, Wright, Mephistopheles, Euclid, Bach, John Steinbeck, Bryce Courtenay, Brian Jacques, Neal Stephenson, Larry Niven, Mozart, Mario Puzo, and thousands of others. I play the piano not for my talent at it, which is not so great, but for my love of music, which knows no bounds. I stand at the forefront of a generation who grasps the complexities and difficulties of the technological age, yet still enjoy the subtleties of something as simple as a game of chess.
     I am furry, which means that I love anything that deals with anthropomorphics: art, literature, poetry, music, sculpture, you name it. If it deals with the personification of animals, I've probably read it, written it, heard it, spoke it, dreamed it, listened to it, held it, or know something about it. For me, being furry, however, is not just a hobby; it's a lifestyle, an outlook on life, and a conscious choice. For me, being furry means choosing to be different. It means wearing a fake tail in public and drawing pictures of naked girls with whiskers and paws. It means choosing to accept anyone for who and what they are. It means being open to new ideas, and not being afraid to have my beliefs shattered by so called "radical" thinking. It means going against what is accepted, what is the norm, and what is culturally chic. To put it bluntly, I think normal is boring. "You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because you're all the same." - Anonymous.
     James Carse once wrote, "There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other, infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play." I choose to view life as a game and to play it as if it were infinite. I have only the vaguest idea of where I want to go with my life. I want to pursue my studies of chemical engineering and computer science in college, but from there I don't know what I want to do. Thus far, only three of my goals are set in stone: be remembered, if only by one person, enjoy life, every minute of it, and some place, some how, and for someone, make a difference.