I was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria on the 4th of April 1989. When I was nine years old, I operated a computer for the first time. This was a rare opportunity because computers were scarce and expensive at the time. My siblings and I would wait like 10-15mins for the computer to boot up. Once it does, we played with all the programs that were installed. It was quite fascinating, the things you could do with a computer.
My dad would ask the computer engineer to hide games in different sections of the hard disk so that we wanted to search explore and discover more. Every time the engineer visited, we knew that he would add a new program (including games). Those were fun times.
There were no GSM/Mobile Phones in the country at the time, so programs such as Netscape, and Internet Explorer (and others that required an internet connection) were just redundant. The computer was already super interesting as it was. I was fortunate to attend a school that offered typing classes in a course called "Business Studies". Every student had a typewriter and learned how to type at a decent speed. This experience made my first interaction with a computer make me look so good as I could type 😃.
Three years later, there came a significant event that would change how we used computers, the "Cyber Cafe boom". Cyber Cafes were businesses that provided computers that had internet connections. You pay for the amount of time you spend on the computer and get assigned to a computer. The computers have timers installed so that you don't exceed the time that you paid for. I remember spending my first ₦100 (One hundred Naira) for 20mins of browsing time. At this point, the relevance of "Internet Explorer" became clear.
The internet connection was not the best. It taught us patience and perseverance haha... There were times when I would sign up for what we call "midnight browsing" and I'll download a file of 45MB all through the night. Most of my downloads were ebooks, multimedia software, etc. I did a video to mp3 conversions, graphic design, theme installation, etc. I was making a difference. My first web design lesson happened in a Cybercafe where I stood behind some guys as one was teaching the other Microsoft Frontpage.
A lot has changed since then... today, I'm a Full-Stack Software Engineer and I'm still learning and growing every day, and more importantly, I'm eager to share knowledge.