I was 12 and was dead set on being a doctor until I walked into a computer store with my family (notably, the last in the neighborhood not to have a computer).

I was 12 and was dead set on being a doctor until I walked into a computer store with my family (notably, the last in the neighborhood not to have a computer). It was December, 1984. The Macintosh (which almost no one had heard of) had recently come out. I had had some computer experience (Commodore 64, Apple II) but the first Mac was like some alien device from the far future that ticked all the boxes I didn’t know I even had. I was so excited and so convinced that I was witnessing the future of literally everything that I stuttered while being unable to stop what we would now call “nerdgasming”. Awe. Awe times 1000. That mind-blowing emoji? That was me. Apparently my parents were receptive to my nerdthusiasm because they dropped a ton of 1984 cash on one and that became my “best christmas present ever”. I code now. =) We don’t know what the future holds, but some of us can sense when we see it.