I was born in Washington, D.C. in 1967. My parents, although they grew up within 30 miles of each other in eastern Idaho, really met in D.C. while they were working in the offices of Idaho Senators Jordan and Church (and also attending the LDS Singles' Branch in the area), and I was born during my dad's final year at George Washington University Law School. My dad's first job after graduating from law school was as an Assistant District Attorney with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office; while he was studying for the bar exam, mom and I trundled off to her parents' home in Idaho, where she gave birth to my sister.
When I was roughly five years old, we moved to Arvada, Colorado (the city where I grew up has an official website. Who knew?). I attended Pomona High School, where I passed a mostly pleasant existence, not entirely exempt from the overwrought dramas of adolescence, but not entirely in thrall to them, either. Or maybe that's just the hazy glow of nostalgia. I graduated in 1986, following which I had a month or so of vacation--just enough to get in trouble--before flying off to Annapolis, Maryland to enter The United States Naval Academy and participate in the dreaded plebe summer. I could tell many a tale of that funhouse, but...maybe some other time.
Following my second year at Annapolis, I resigned from the Academy in order to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was called to serve in the Taiwan, Taipei Mission, covering the northern half of the island. I had a fantastic time living in Taiwan for two years, although I did sweat some blood learning the language. Following my Asian sojourn, I transferred to Brigham Young University for my junior and senior year, graduating in August, 1992 with a double major in Chinese and Asian Studies (big surprise there, I know).
Immediately after graduation from BYU, I moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I began graduate studies in Chinese Literature and Culture in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. After two years in Ann Arbor, I decided, for a variety of reasons, that a PhD in the humanities was not for me. I ended up working for Novell, Inc., of computer networking fame (or infamy) in their Localization department (I'd link to that too, except the department became defunct not long after I left Novell). I was involved in projects taking Novell's new software releases and creating foreign language versions for the international market; I worked mostly on Chinese versions, for obvious reasons.
After three years at Novell, I felt like it was time to move on to something new, so I applied to various law schools, and in August, 1998, joined the entering class of the UCLA School of Law. After three delightful, fun-filled years spent poring over the ponderous thoughts of great legal minds (feel free to re-calibrate your sarcasm meter), I graduated in May, 2001. Not too long after graduation, I moved back to Colorado, where I finally got around to passing the bar. Go, me!