My first experience with computer technology was mostly dictated by my parents at a young age. Being a child of the late 90s, my parents had already adopted certain technologies into the household, so the only exposure I had to computers was seeing and using them in my everyday life. One of the earliest memories I have of computers is playing Oregon Trail on our home family computer, a game-cartridge game my parents had installed on an early version of a PC.
I remember having a great deal of difficulty understanding how the computer worked and what exactly I was supposed to do to play the game. I was relatively young, so I didn’t understand the concept of how information and data were stored, or how user input would be processed. I just wanted to play the game, so my parents guided me through the commands and how to manipulate them to get the game going.
Once I was able to get the game going, I was diligent about learning all the finer details of how to use the computer. I had several other similar experiences as I grew up, and like any technology, it eventually became second nature to me. My first experiences with computers created a passion for understanding the inner workings of this incredible technology and it's been a passion of mine ever since.