How's it going, Steemit?

 I'm Decimus. I love pseudonyms. I'm excited to tell you a little bit about myself. 

All my life I've been a teacher. In fact, I'm still a teacher, and I suspect that I'll probably always be one. 

I've traveled the world teaching everything from martial arts to storytelling. Of course, there've been bumps along the way, but none of them were without their lessons. 

My goal here is to teach a few lessons, share a few stories, and learn a whole lot.

Some facts about me:

I love comics.

When I was a kid, my parents dragged me, kicking and screaming, to mass every Sunday. My mother recalls a moment where, at six years old, a priest asked the community if they “had any needs.” 

I stood on the pew and voiced mine: “I need to go home.” My parents tried desperately to keep me quiet in church. They scolded me, reasoned with me, and threatened me. Nothing worked until they tried bribery.

One Sunday, before service, my father handed me a comic book: Classic X-Men #60. “Read this and shut up,” he said. 

I loved the imagery and was sucked into the stories. With a comic in my hands, my mouth was shut. They were the first stories that truly captured my imagination. Since then, I've worshiped at the altar of Marvel.

A long time ago, I studied Tai Chi at the Wudang Temple in China. 

When I was in high school, I had asthma so bad that I needed a machine to vaporize the medicine so I could breathe while I slept. After giving up on the absurd amount of inhalers doctors were giving me, I decided to start practicing Kung-fu. After a few years of rigorous training, I never picked up an inhaler again.

During that time, I managed to get a scholarship from my college to practice in China. The monks were excellent. The mountain food was eh...

I'm obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons. 

For those who've never played, Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop role-playing game. Essentially, a group of people sitting around making stuff up until they run out of snacks or brainpower.

Each year I participate in a charity Dungeons & Dragons game called Charid20.  The games have raised over 15k in donations for an organization called Reach out and Read. 

D&D was the game that started me on the path to teaching storytelling, which I now do for a living.

My friend and I created a game called Skittykitts!

We funded the game through Kickstarter, which was a massive learning experience. The game was about a Princess, Wizard, Bat, and Fool who were battling it out for a magical kingdom.

One of my favorite moments from producing the game was when our game designer role-model, Sid Meier (of the Civilization series), sent us a photo of himself after playing a few rounds of the game - a dream come true.

I go to the coolest, most intensely awesome, gym in the world.

It's a nerdcentric gym. Meaning that there are zombies, aliens, monsters and superheroes involved in our workouts. I've already posted about it on Steemit -- check that post out here: Dungeons, Dragons, Fitness

I met my amazing girlfriend at a masquerade ball.

It was one of the most incredible nights of my life. 100% Disney-style. She's amazing. I love her.

I've spent the past five years traveling the world. 

It's an amazing place - It sucks that I only have one lifetime to explore it. I teach storytelling for a living.

I left college with a bachelor’s degree in biology, and plans to pursue an advanced degree in genetics. I had visions of myself in a lab late one night, laughing maniacally as I pressed a glowing green syringe full of super-serum into my arm. I would be unstoppable, or so I thought.

Science wasn’t nearly as mad as I’d dreamed it would be. I landed a decent job at Yale as a psychology and genetics researcher. I found it uncreative and boring. I wanted to explore the world and write stories again.  

I used the money I’d saved and the connections I had to travel. I wrote consistently about my experiences. I experimented with different writing styles and found a love for dialogue. 

In 2007, a few of my stories got picked up by a Rolling Stone writer in Los Angeles. That same year I was flown out to LA and began writing for him full-time. 

That year my life radically changed. All the sudden, it was flooded with new stories, which I’ll save for future posts.

Professionally, I write educational pieces about philosophy, literature, art, music, history, language, and romance. I also travel the world teaching people how to express themselves more effectively. You can check out my first post on the topic here: How to Become a Great Conversational Storyteller.

Thanks for reading everyone. Steem on!