My name is Matthew James Lorenzo Fernandez. However, it wasn't always like that. Before I was born My parents had planned on naming me “James”, but my brother had different plans. For some reason he told everyone he saw that his brother was going to be named “Matt”. After correcting so many family friends and relatives, my parents caved.

I didn’t start speaking until after I turned 4. I didn't let that stop me, I would climb high cabinets, point, and make guttural noises to get my parents attention. I was usually looking for scotch tape, I really loved scotch tape. Elementary school started and I had difficulty acclimating to my newfound environment. My teachers got mad at me because I wasn't a very good communicator.

This would only become a larger issue in Middle school. At this point, I was well below the intellectual bell-curve, and incredibly socially awkward. I didn’t like listening to my teachers, because I never felt that they truly understood my situation. I could barely write a coherent sentence and I felt like an outcast. It was then that I discovered what has been one of the most important things in my life… YouTube.

It wasn't just hours of meaningless content, at some point I came across a channel called “Gimp Know How”. This channel supplied weekly tutorials for the photo manipulation software “Gimp”. I was hooked. Once I started binging YouTube tutorials, I couldn't stop. The strange thing about this was that once I started educating myself in my own interests, my grades in school went up. Eventually I caught up to the rest of my peers. I loved Adobe, and graphic design in general, so I knew instantly how I wanted to spend my next four years at college... Making software?!

It was kinda a shot in the dark, but It was always something that captivated me. School was tough, and every semester had only gotten harder. Being a good software engineer has been my passion since I first stepped foot in SUNY Oswego. Many people like to use the expression “You won't remember the night you stayed home to study”. I disagree with this statement, because the sacrifices I have made have molded me into the best programmer I can be.

Currently, when I am not programming I Snowboard, Draw, Rock climb, Sing, and Cook a mean curry. If you find me at your local small-town coffee shop, prepare for a solid one hour lecture on Tyler, the Creator.

As I look forward, my sights are set on game programming/design, Human computer interaction, game design, and animation.