I had the same epiphany. For the long time, I regarded computers deeply magical, and didn't understand why some programming languages had the features they had,

I had the same epiphany. For the long time, I regarded computers deeply magical, and didn't understand why some programming languages had the features they had, and some don't. (At the time, I only knew Python and some superficial C.) Then I read a book that explained how assembly works and how a compiler would implement C's features with assembly. It all clicked since then. Too bad I've forgotten the name of the book.