Greetings all! My name is Alexander Pack as the username says; I mostly go with "Alex" day-to-day, but it's not a big deal. I stumbled upon this fantastic forum a number of months ago, but was initially hesitant to make a posting account. It's been a long time since I last participated in an online community, but the bigger reason I hesitated was out of a kind of respect/intimidation. Such an overwhelming majority of the posters here truly think critically and have personality, as apart from other forums about Ayn Rand's ideas I've visited. I've learned and been spurned to learn more about so much from the short time I've been lurking, and so I've realized I can't just be frightened of posting! It's silly. I'm currently in my 2nd year as an undergraduate philosophy major at Temple University. I plan on going to law school afterwards, but I'm still weighing what I could pursue after that. It's in my profile elsewhere somewhere, but my interest in philosophy was spurred at the age of 15 when a close friend and mentor recommended I read Atlas Shrugged. It was awesome - AS put words to things I had always known but couldn't articulate, and made me reflect a lot on my actions. Unfortunately, as a troubled teen I too often rationalized it and did not fully grasp (grok?) the various points being made, and I straddled the line into petty moralizng and outright evasion for a while. Over time, though, I've recognized and appreciated more and more the relationship between my willful choices, my passions, and my happiness, and I feel like I'm on a real upward trend. Even in the past six months, various things I've read here from the contradictions within Rand's work to o-ists Peikoff/ARI events never mentioned (and much more) have affected and really challenged my perspective on things. It's great! I'd have written more but I have to run out and do some tasks before its too late. Looking forward to posting!