I fell in love with writing because I love stories. Stories connect us to each other and our shared humanity. They’ve been told and retold across all centuries, continents, and languages. It’s our original—and I’d argue core—form of communication.

But words are powerful. I’m fascinated by rhetorical theory because it shows just how easy it is to sway audiences with nothing more than word choice. When I took rhetoric courses in college, my friends and I joked about using our writing powers for good, because it’s all too easy to use them for evil. When you know how to play into people’s biases, logical fallacies, and emotional undercurrents, you can control them. Read the headlines for the same news story across media platforms and you can see people using their writing powers for evil.

A fun side effect of becoming a strong writer is the ways in which you can use your powers for good: to use language to delight, to transform words like memes, and to make the world just a little bit easier to navigate.

If you’ve heard me speak, you’ve probably heard me verb some nouns and noun some verbs. While I hold firm on some of the rudimentary rules of grammar, I take an active part in the evolution of language. Words change form and meaning constantly. Internet culture can speed up the process: Karen is a name, an insult, a personality type, and an American sub-culture.

Conveying clear explanations while holding onto a little bit of delight is my career. I make software literally easier to navigate. But through other mediums, I hope to make the world easier to navigate by providing a mirror, a window, or an escape hatch.