Personally, I was interested in QM a little before my interest in computers developed. As a kid, I would always watch programs like "The Universe" on History Channel (RIP to the old days when there was good info on that station), etc. I read Carl Sagan and Brian Greene and others when I got to middle school. The quantum world was always a source of fascination and discovery for me. When I was about 14, I got into programming because I wanted to make Flash games (dating myself a bit...). This is where my love for programming/computing developed, I'd say...The thrill of writing code was amazing! In high school, I spent most of my free-time playing piano and journaling my thoughts. My computer skills didn't develop much at that time. I was a little dormant in terms of engineering and science. In college, I experimented with some Computer Science classes, but eventually found my way to English. I really love literature and communicating (especially writing), and I found, we'll say, a decent enough way to get my bachelors. Throughout, however, computers and programming were still a big part of my personal life. In my free time, when I wasn't reading books, I would program, learn Linux or even think about ways that I could bring together my creative, "artsy" side with my developing engineering side ("at the intersection of art and technology," haha...). Quantum computing became a "cool thing" when I was in college, and, of course, I noticed it and wanted to learn more. I began to harbor a dream that, maybe, I could gain the requisite knowledge to be a part of the QC industry one day, especially since it was a newer, hot thing. After college, I thought I wanted to go to law school, but I decided last-minute (i.e. one year in 😂) to do Computer Science. I'm currently finishing my masters in computer science and haven't really looked back. I'm highly dedicated to QC and CS in general now, and I have no plans of changing my trajectory--I've finally found my intellectual "home" (if not my professional one, yet...). I know now that I can make contributions in QC and plan to learn as much as I can, even if that means going back to school when I'm finished! I'm locked in, as they say. 😎