Spring, 2006

I'm an unemployed college and university-dropout, art-damaged, self-harming, a lethargic heap, lurking in a basement with his seething ex-girlfriend. For the first time, I have no innate sense of purpose, not even an inkling. Then I wake up to a voicemail cold-offering me a job doing 3D animation, and I bounce off "the bottom" with a resounding whump. As I write this—13 years later—I'm head of software at that same company, we're making strikingly cool interactive learning media, and I'm happily married. Talk about inverting the y-axis!