My family got a computer when I was in 3rd grade (1994-ish?) and I was immediately obsessed. A year or two went by of me just clicking every button I could find

My family got a computer when I was in 3rd grade (1994-ish?) and I was immediately obsessed. A year or two went by of me just clicking every button I could find on the computer to see what happened, most of which was nothing. Eventually the idea of making my own programs hit me. I remember asking every adult I could how to "build programs". Nobody knew or at least nobody took me seriously. Eventually a family friend, who happened to be a Navy Admiral and at one point on the joint chiefs of staff, actually responded affirmatively. He showed me a small program he had written for his son that mimicked some air traffic and had callsigns on the airplanes like "Goose" and "Maverick". He sent me home with a copy of QBasic on a 3.5" floppy and a BASIC programming book. It was all downhill from there.