4 years ago: I was living in South America and got my first taste of language learning "on the spot" from the locals. That planted the linguistics seed. 3 years ago: I began studying American Sign Language (ASL) for fun and was blown away by all that I had not considered about ASL and also deaf education in a hearing world. 2 years ago: I finished a BFA. 2months ago: I started studying Applied Linguistics, with a major slant toward teaching development. My research will require a lot of qualitative studies, likely using video as I will be doing a lot in ASL.