Brandon Sanderson was born on December 19, 1975, in Lincoln, Nebraska. As a teenager, he loved reading high fantasy novels and tried writing his own stories. After graduating from high school in 1994, he enrolled at Brigham Young University (BYU) as a biochemistry major. He took a two-year leave of absence from 1995 to 1997 to work as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was assigned to serve in South Korea.