I believe most people start their lives with a very open mind about which fields they want to be part of, and in what capacity. As we age and become wiser, we tend to focus and narrow on what we want our career to look like. In my case, things didn't work out this way. When I was six or so, I began to acquire some understanding of what electronics were, what circuits are, etc. Soon after I pledged to become an electrical engineer when I grew up. I could not imagine anything else, until a couple of years later I discovered the world of programming and shifted my ambition to becoming a software engineer. Either way, it was clear to me that I would go into tech, which was largely how I maneuvered my childhood years in school. It was only much later, in the senior year of my science degree, that I began taking a serious interest in fields outside of tech and professions outside of engineering. But the passion for tech remains very strong.
I was one of the last kids in my class to get a real computer, even though I begged for one for what seemed like ages. It finally came when I was eight. This was a used Sinclair ZX Spectrum, a primitive home computer that you would connect to your TV. The only way to use it was through the BASIC programming language, which I was made to learn. By the time we got it from a family friend, it was already antiquated and inferior to anything my friends had (x86 PCs), but I could not be happier. I remember working with my father for hours trying to set it up the first time. It must have been thrown in some attic before, because it had a serious graphics malfunction that blackened most of the screen. I remember my dad telling me that he was very sorry, but it looked broken beyond repair. Only one corner of the screen lit up. I implored him to open it up and what followed felt like a miracle. With nothing more than common sense, duct tape and a few toothpicks, my dad found a short circuit and fixed it. It then came to life! What followed must have been a year of pure bliss, until it suddenly succumbed one day, and that was it.