My love for technology

I've loved technology for as long as I can remember. I'm not entirely sure when it all began—I just know it has fascinated me since I was very young. I didn't have much exposure to modern technology growing up, but it certainly surrounded me throughout my childhood. I belong to the generation that witnessed the expansion of the Internet and personal computers, though I didn't grow up with an iPad in my hand as a baby.

My first powerful memory related to technology comes from a hazy recollection sometime before 2004. I was very young, and we had a white desktop computer in the apartment where we lived—the kind that looks like a relic today. I knew nothing about how that machine worked, but I would navigate to Google's homepage through Internet Explorer, and that colorful logo absolutely mesmerized me. I could stare at it for hours. To me, that Google logo was the Internet, and for some reason, I found it beautiful. Perhaps that's when my deep interest in technology truly began.

My first steps with technology

Shortly after that memory, we moved to our house. It was a neighborhood very different from what it is today—it felt like a small place forgotten by society where increasingly complex buildings were just beginning to take shape. Like any developing neighborhood, Internet and cable connections were scarce. I don't remember what happened to the white computer from my memories; I just know that one day it was no longer part of our lives. Around the same time, we went through a period without Internet access. I don't know how many years it was, but in my child's mind, it felt like forever.

Like any kid from that era, playing outside was still appealing. My brother and I made many friends. We had our large group of playmates. We went out to have fun almost every day. Weekends were perfect for playing for hours, and vacations were our favorite times because we'd all go out without interruption to plan adventures around the neighborhood. We were loved by many, hated by others. Our reputation in the neighborhood as the mischievous kids left a mark on that park where we gathered for many years. The neighbors detested us.

Despite this, technology was increasingly taking over our lives. Game consoles like the PlayStation 1 and 2, GameCube, and Game Boy were becoming popular in homes. Internet cafes (what some countries called cybercafés) gained tremendous momentum. For many children of that era, these cafes were the perfect opportunity to discover the Internet and, with it, video games.

My first real steps with technology came precisely through video games, like most kids today. Back then, it was so difficult to find information online that each person had to learn to overcome gaming challenges on their own, all while being surrounded by strange rumors related to popular games like Pokémon, GTA San Andreas, Half-Life, etc. It was a beautiful time.

At school, we had computer classes. We learned to use Microsoft's main office programs like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. We also ventured into editing software like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Curiously, we never saw anything related to programming—a missed opportunity, in my opinion.

When we finally got Internet at home, my mother had a sacred rule: no playing from Monday through Friday. It was a rule that predated having Internet, so we didn't question it. At some point, it was relaxed to allow us to play from Friday through Sunday, but I only had real access to fun on weekends. After that, the Internet was available to me only for school assignments and the occasional silly YouTube video someone would share via Hotmail. I wasn't exactly a popular kid either, so if I was lucky, someone would send me a nudge on MSN Messenger.

Technology begins to change my life

Two things changed my life forever: a website called Taringa! and a video game called Operation7.

Taringa! was my first real exposure to online communities. It was a website where people uploaded posts, and others would comment or leave points. The vast majority of users were from Argentina, and I loved their humor. The use of GIFs, the disrespect between strangers, and the idea of connecting with others through a computer seemed incredible to me. Interestingly, I always tried to be respectful to others, though Taringa! wasn't exactly known for that.

On the other hand, Operation7 was my first great love in online gaming. It was a first-person shooter where you competed with people around the world to win matches like Survival, Team Death Match, etc. You could customize every part of your weapons within the game, which turned me into a gun nerd at the time. Many of my school friends downloaded it because of its popularity and good recommendations, and we started playing frequently on calls through a program called TeamSpeak (Discord didn't exist back then, and nobody used Skype for those kinds of group calls).

Because of how much I loved online communities and my passion for Operation7, I decided to join its official forums created by the company behind the game's maintenance in Latin America: Axeso5. I immediately fell in love with the concept of forums. This particular forum had tremendous activity, so you could never get bored. There was always a new post, new information, new messages, and new users. That's when I had the idea that would lead me to become who I am today: what if I started learning more about technology to work with it?

My first job in technology

It was 2012. I was 15 years old. I was in high school. My grandfather had gifted me my first notebook—an extremely small personal computer. An Acer with a Celeron processor that barely met the minimum requirements to open Firefox or Word. It was more than enough for me. The rule about not having machines or games from Monday through Thursday began to lose weight due to my age. Smartphones were appearing everywhere by the dozens. Apps were becoming a reality. Touchscreens were taking over the world.

My little notebook allowed me to browse the Internet and, therefore, participate in the Operation7 forums. During the day, I'd go to classes; at night, I'd stay up writing messages on the forum with hundreds of strangers. I began to understand how the forum worked, the company's support system, and the game's inner workings. My responses always included solutions to technical problems and respect for all users.

The company's internal staff had the title of Administrator on the forum. There was one person who seemed to be in charge of the Operation7 forum, so I wrote to her expressing my interest in knowing what it would take to become a moderator of that forum. She interviewed me on Skype, was impressed by my maturity despite being so young, and gave me the opportunity to hold the position. The payment for my work was a considerable amount of in-game virtual currency, so officially, that became my first job.

I have very fond memories of the company and my work as a moderator. I was in the position for about a year and learned many things. In the process, I also became a moderator for Karos Online and Ace Online. I was even offered the position of Game Master in one of those games, but at that point, I only had my little notebook, whose computing power wasn't sufficient to run the game and fulfill the duties required of me. It was a very good time for me.

Not many 15-year-old students can say they participated in a gaming company while dedicating themselves to their studies. Around that same time, I began to take an interest in understanding how Taringa! worked internally. There was a community related to creating websites similar to Taringa! back then called PHPost. I started experimenting with free hosting because I didn't have money to pay for proper hosting or a private domain. I didn't know it then, but at that moment I was touching the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP code of my own pages. In other words, I had begun to program. There would be no turning back after that.

Creating websites

After my period as a moderator, I started looking for other interesting online communities. Back then, my English wasn't very good, so Reddit didn't appeal to me much. I was looking for something similar to a forum, and luckily I found a Peruvian forum with tremendous activity at the time called ForosPerú (I know, not a very creative name). I participated in that community for many years. I also joined a gaming-focused forum called Emudesc (sending a shout-out to everyone over there). Around that same time, I started studying at university.

I entered the Economics program because I had enjoyed the subject in high school, but I wasn't particularly passionate about the idea of working in that field. I studied that major for a year, but then I switched to Psychology. Understanding the human mind seemed both enigmatic and fascinating to me. I didn't overthink my decision at the time—it seemed like the most appropriate option and the one I liked most in the humanities department of my university. On the other hand, I set aside website creation because I wasn't seeing interesting results in my constant failed experiments. I only focused on creating forums and online communities.

Everyone is probably wondering: why didn't you enter a technology-related major? The reason was lack of information. It turns out that in Peru, my country of origin, the technology professional field I knew most about was technical service—that is, fixing computers, consoles, printers, or similar equipment. What I was doing had no name in my mind; I was just a curious kid who created websites. I was ignorant of the reality behind the entire job market that revolved around software.

While studying Psychology, I dedicated my limited free time to continuing to create websites. A university classmate named Nicolay recommended a couple of YouTube channels for me to start learning about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). At first, I focused on creating pages with WordPress to improve my knowledge in digital marketing and SEO, but after a couple of years of experiments in that area, I realized I had limitations. I created more than 15 websites during that time. Everything changed when I discovered programming.

I started learning HTML and CSS. JavaScript became the first programming language I officially learned through educational resources like videos, articles, tutorials, and platforms specialized in that area. I learned more about the history of technology, the dot-com bubble, the existence of Silicon Valley, and a strange concept that people called Computer Science. I understood then that software engineers existed—people specialized in understanding how the foundations of modern applications work.

By that point, I was well advanced in my degree, so I didn't consider switching majors again as an option. I was happy in Psychology and wanted to try linking it to digital marketing to work at the intersection of technology and my field. I kept getting better at programming, though I never quite became an expert. At the same time, I made a lot of progress in my degree and even started my thesis to graduate. But 2020 had a few strange surprises in store for the world and, especially, for me.

The pandemic and a new life in the United States

The pandemic changed everything. I think it left a mark on all of us. The Peruvian government declared a state of emergency, as did many other countries around the world. My personal life was turned upside down for another reason: in February 2020, shortly before we went into lockdown, my brother and I received approval to become permanent residents of the United States.

My dad is a U.S. citizen and had been working for a few years to get our case approved. We received the invitation for the residency interview in late 2019. If we were approved after that interview, we'd have six months to travel to the United States to receive all our documents. When the day came, we went to the interview relaxed, answered three specific questions, and were approved. As you might suspect, fate seemed to have other plans. The pandemic brought with it the cancellation of all international flights—the only people who could travel on an emergency basis were those accepted on humanitarian flights to their countries of origin.

My brother and I focused on our studies virtually. I was working on my thesis, so I wasn't very clear about wanting to travel to the United States. The pandemic only made us consider it impossible to get our residency officially, so I focused on my future plans in Peru. If there was an opportunity to redo the process, it would probably take a few years before everything was ready again... or so I thought it would happen.

It turns out that humanitarian flights didn't only apply to U.S. citizens, at least not the ones that happened in July. We had until July 22nd to travel together, set foot on American soil, and receive final approval at the airport. My dad found a flight for exactly that day, so we got on the plane and traveled. We didn't have a clear plan; we didn't know if we were going to move to the United States, but we knew this was the perfect opportunity to try something new. I'll talk about those first years in more detail in some other blog entry.

What was clear to me was that I had a new life, so I decided to analyze my professional options. Seeing that I had the opportunity to study a new degree, I chose Software Engineering. I've been pursuing the degree for over two years now. At the same time, I decided to create an app development company called Zelandaware as an excuse to program more and try to make money from it. I'm fortunate that it gives me a little extra money from time to time. I've also started working on a series of interesting projects with artificial intelligence.

I don't know what the future holds for me, but what I do know is that I want to dedicate my career and my life to technology. Times have changed a lot; technological advances are very different from those of 20 years ago. Software Engineering itself is constantly changing. We don't really know what will happen with all the advances related to artificial intelligence. What I do know is that I want to be part of those who create that future.