When I was little, my father had a spare computer on which he let the kids install games and play around. I spent a lot of time getting shareware games to run a

When I was little, my father had a spare computer on which he let the kids install games and play around. I spent a lot of time getting shareware games to run and then playing them. When I was around 9 or 10, my dad (who was an EE) decided that some simple programming might be a practical skill to teach me as I was home schooled at the time. He installed a compiler for Turbo Pascal on the kids' computer and set up a lesson plan. I learned from him for about a year and a half. When I got older, about 12 years, I pulled out a book on c++ and started teaching myself c/c++. I spent most a large portion of high school trying to get proficient in c++ and ended up coding some very broken games. I drifted away from computers in high school and more so in college when I began to study other things and made a number of friends who had no interest in computers. I drifted back however when I started playing with Linux and BSD. I managed to get a summer job programming at a the startup of an associate of my father's. So when I graduated from college, I did so with work experience as a programmer, but no other marketable skills. Fortunately, there's not many things I would rather be doing (for a living.) These days I work full time as a programmer and sysadmin and spend a lot of my free time working on little programs for this and that.