Description
Though still a kid, you pause to think back on where it all began. How did you get tangled up in this wonderful world?
Earlier memories of Mum & Dad's camera store are still fresh: Learning how to cut glass, frames, and mats. Helping customers choose prints that fit their decor, budget, and preference. ("We do have a few signed limited editions that you may like, ma'am, right this way.")
The smell of the darkroom stirs in your mind - developing negatives, doing your own enlargements, and experimenting with print-making. Tripods, camera bags, flashes of various sorts. You could handle most customer's needs, operate the till, count the float and close out at the end of the day. When the 1-hour lab came, you learned its operation - chemicals, colour-correction, and so on.
The most fun, though? Taking breaks to see the new books at W.H. Smith, playing at the arcade with a best friend who was also learning to code, and the customers at the camera store..._that's_ where you fell head-first down the rabbit hole.
A regular from the local university who took a shine to you, on account of your curiosity, came in one day to pick up his photofinishing. "Hey, do you want to see my final project?"
After all the talks about computers you'd had, of course you did! He plops down a briefcase on the counter and opens it up...there may as well have been a choir of angels singing...inside sits a mess of dip switches, LEDs, wires, transistors, and so on.
What is it? Oh, it's 'just' a computer that he designed and built himself. From scratch - hardware, operating system, software, and all. Your mind is blown, to say the least. This kind of technology isn't just out there in the world, but it's right here, right at your fingertips. _YOU_ could create systems of your own someday - you see right in front of you, it's possible.