I am a native speaker of English, have a working knowledge of German (having spent a good part of my childhood in Nürnberg), and have studied Spanish and French at university. I'm a self-confessed Canadiophile.
I find Wikipedia addicting, and I love the fact that it's free, open-source and user-run. It has become a constant tool in my life, and I am always improving it as I explore. I constantly copy edit, creating redirects from misspellings I discover. I have a personal rule: If I come across a RedLink, I have to start the article off, even if just a stub.
I agree to release my text and image contributions, unless otherwise stated, into the public domain. Please be aware that other contributors might not do the same, so if you want to use my contributions under public domain terms, please check the multi-licensing guide.
Even though I am a good writer, I enjoy editing more than writing. Consequently, most of the work I do on Wikipedia is general-purpose editing -- copy editing, formatting, clarifying, wikifying, fixing links, creating redirects, etc.
I have done an immense amount of work on disambiguation pages in my time here. I have a knack for organizing information, and I put this skill to use in working on disambiguation pages. (Other people play solitaire on their computers; I go through pages, checking and fixing links. It's a hobby.)
"I will tell you a great secret, Captain. Perhaps the greatest of all time. The molecules of your body are the same molecules that make up this station and the nebula outside, that burn inside the stars themselves. We are starstuff, we are the Universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out." -Delenn, Babylon 5 Episode A Distant Star
I have often felt the same way Delenn does about myself and the my role in the Universe -- that I am the Universe, a living, conscious part of the Universe, whose job it is to understand. Everything.
It's one of the primary, guiding principles in my life.
I don't have offspring, I don't particularly believe in god, at least not the way monotheists do, and I don't believe in an afterlife. None of these things that most people in my culture take for granted as giving purpose and meaning to their lives work for me.
For me, the purpose of my existence is to be the eyes, and ears, and mind of the Universe. To experience. To remember. To understand.
And part of that understanding requires chronicling, recording, and preserving that understanding. For ourselves, for our inheritors, and for the Universe itself.
That's why I am drawn to Wikipedia. It's what we are doing here. We're chronicling the Universe here.
And to a much greater degree than other encyclopedias, Wikipedia is letting the Universe do its own recording.