From my childhood up till now, I have always loved building things. When I was young, I used to play endlessly with lego bricks, making up stories about the little plastic figures. Back then when I had more free time, I would make hanging containers out of cardboard, plastic, and tape that I would hang from the side of my bed (unfortunately, as you can imagine, the boxes broke nearly every other day, and I was forced to fallback to more conventional storage solutions). As I grew older, I became interested in origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. I would spend hours of my free time folding colorful figures - animals, plants, teacups and lay them across my room or give them to friends.

An origami chair I made
An origami chair I made a few years ago

     I also loved playing with toys such as a marble run set. I loved building interesting shapes and pathways for the tiny balls, each making with a loud satisfiying click as it rushed through. I also started experimenting with building electronic circuits out of resistors, capacitors, etc. I also got expressed my creativity in programming games and websites. I also got interested in 3d printing. I was facinated by how a machine can spin up literaly any thing I wanted (plastic, of course).

My 3d printer
A picture of my 3d printer. It broke, but I plan to fix it this summer.

Write a five-sentence reflection on how it helped you grow personally or professionally.

     My interest in creating things has helped me by helping me to think through and find creative solutions for problems. This helps me in my academics by allowing me to visualize and come up with solutions for test items. It also assists me in resolving conflicts, especially in groupworks. My interest has let me grow as a person by helping me relax and express myself. It also helps me deal with problems in my life.