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How I Got Into Computers

September 1st, 2010

Once someone asked me how a kid learns how to walk, my respond was “move forward one step at a time”. That’s exactly how I got into computers – learning one new skill at a time.

When I first started college (in NYC where I was studying to be a brain surgeon), I needed a computer. I looked around for few weeks and then finally found it at a local shop not to far from where I lived. So, my dad and I went to the store to pick my computer. I was so excited to get my FIRST computer!!!  I couldn’t wait to get home and open that bad boy to see what it could do.

When I got home, I opened the box and found – 15 inch monitor, keyboard, mouse, a box (At the time I didn’t know what it was called. So, I just called it a box. Cut me some slack. Later I learned it was called desktop) and whole bunch of wires. I quickly found the owners manual and found out how to connect all the wires. I was so proud of myself that I was able to connect all the wires to my computer and turn it on within 1 minute. At the time, I thought I was the “MAN”!!!

Now, my computer was up and running. I wanted to know what it could do because I didn’t know anything about computers. So, I was really excited to know and learn what my new toy could do. On my monitor I saw (on the bottom left hand side) an icon call “Start”. I wanted to see what it could do but didn’t know how. So, I figure if I move the mouse and point the white arrow over it maybe it will do something. It did!! It said “Click here to begin”. So, I left clicked it. Then it opened the start menu. Next I clicked on all programs and that opened up another menu. I was so excited that I made my computer do something. I just started clicking away in the all programs menu. I found out where the games were and played for hours for next two next.

Then I discovered where the programs and windows folder was. I decided to explorer the windows folder. In that folder there were whole brunch of files and folders. I figure if I didn’t know what they were I could delete them. So, I did!!! I deleted probably over 100 files and the computer was still running fine. So, I figure everything is fine. I turned my computer off and went to bed.

Next day I turned my computer on I got the “Blue Screen”. I figure it was nothing. I turned the computer off and then on. I got the same blue screen!!! I tried turning my computer off and on over 10 times. I continued to get the same blue screen. Now I was beginning to worry!!! I mean what I was going to tell my dad – oh dad, I messed brand new computer up. Can we please go get another one??? I think my dad would have reacted like any other dad would have. So, I didn’t want to him. Instead, I went back to the store and found the guy who sold us the computer. I told him what happened. He said, “I can fix that. It’s only going to cost you $50”. He came to our house and I watched him re-install windows 98 and the blue screen was gone!!!

Few weeks later, I wanted to re-install the windows 98 myself to see if I could do it. I mean, I watched the guy do it step by step. If he could do it, so could I. What’s the worse thing that could happen? I knew if I messed up it would only going to cost $50. I was fine that. I didn’t want to pay but if that’s the cost for me learning how to install. So be it!!! I popped the CD in and off I went. As I was going through the installation process, I was seeing the same screens as the guy was seeing. Within 40 minutes, I was done!!! I said to myself – if I could learn to do this, what else I could learn about my computer.

So, I went to the library and picked up the books about computer hardware and software. I learned about motherboards, processor, memory, graphic cards, power supply, and etc. I added more memory, better graphic card and extra cd-rom to my computer. All by myself!!! Next I learned about computer software – word, excel and powerpoint. All these software helped me do my school work faster. The more I learned about the software, the better I got at using them. I was so proud of myself. I mean in few months ago I didn’t know anything about computers and now I could install new hardware and use word, excel and powerpoint. I felt like I could do anything!!!

I started to wonder what other software I could learn. I would read books first thing in the morning, on my way to school, on my way back from school and before I went to bed. I was so hooked. The more I learned the more I wanted to learn. I learned about “Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver, HTML, Javascript, PHP, MySQL, Photoshop and etc”.

If I learned anything from computers, that is: if there is a will, there is way!!! You just have to take baby steps. Move forward one step at a time. Learn one new skill at a time!!!

 

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