Open with the problem you want to work on, not the moment you first held a computer. Readers are deciding whether you can survive their curriculum and add something to the cohort.
Spend the middle of the statement on evidence: a project, a job, a course you struggled through, a result you can name. Specifics travel; adjectives do not.
Close by connecting to the department. Name two faculty members and the reason their work is relevant to yours. Generic praise for the university is the clearest signal of a template.
