I'm still in it after 10 years... self-taught at 12, did some "proggies" for AOL--mostly did programming for fun, eventually at 18, I quit, and would not return

I'm still in it after 10 years... self-taught at 12, did some "proggies" for AOL--mostly did programming for fun, eventually at 18, I quit, and would not return until I had to.. at 26. I just wasn't interested in it. Wanted nothing to do with computers... went off to college, studied psychology, lived in another country, taught English, came back home... no one was hiring, except a company that needed the skills I learned when I was 12. Although he was a tyrant boss that I couldn't stand, he taught me what I would need to know to go on and stay focused on the "task at hand" when it came to programming. I started getting into web design and development at the time as well, and made the switch. Been at it ever since. I used to be a gamer in high school. I'd skip school to stay home and play Asheron's Call. I was so addicted to the game that I was the first to max out on the server of Harvestgain. Had a whole bunch of people come watch the fireworks. It was awesome. Anyways, it was a year after high school and I had been playing that game for 5 years, before realizing that I was just "wasting my life away" playing video games, which is what escalated a push for me to go to college and kind of taught me a valuable lesson: what if I could monetize something I enjoy doing? Programming = being creative, coming up with new ideas, making them a reality, etc. I work for the media, I freelance for a few companies, started a blog, and started my own business ( https://notetoservices.com https://notetoservices.com ), developing web apps for a variety of different purposes. So I tend to just keep myself busy, coming up with new ideas, and a lot of ideas stem off of other ideas, some free, some monetized. Keeps things... joyful.