I grew up in a very traditional, military family. Girls became young ladies, married at an early age (before they were 20 years old), and had children. They did not learn mathematics or science, and certainly didn't go to college. Every time we got into a discussion about college, my parents would ask, “Why waste four years in college, and all that money, if you're just going to get married and have children?”

When I was about seven years old, these restrictions made me decide that being a girl was basically a bad thing but that fortunately, I was really a boy. So I dressed like a boy, played “army” and “fort” with boys, and did well in school—especially in science and math. To this day, I'm not sure how I managed to act like a boy for so long without my parents putting a stop to it. But they didn't. I finally relinquished my boyhood a few years later, but by then I was headstrong and adamant that I could do things girls weren't supposed to do.

All through high school I continued to earn straight A's, and participated in a number of sports. A teacher dropped a couple of hints that completely formed my choice of college and major. Once he said, “I think you'd be good at computer science.” Weeks later he commented, “Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo has a good computer science program.”