The year was 1999, and I was a freshman at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, there to study filmmaking. One of my first classes was “Intro to Computers.” I found this disk in my garage while going through a bunch of other old stuff, and it got me thinking about what life was like for me back then.
That disk belonged to a version of me who was just getting started…
It’s a strange thing to hold something like that in your hand. That disk belonged to a version of me who was just getting started and had no idea where any of it would go. I stuck with film for about a year and a half before I walked away from it. I didn’t come back until 2008, and by then the school had even changed its name, from the Academy of Art College to the Academy of Art University. This time I was there for Web Design & New Media.
Funny enough, that “Intro to Computers” class ended up mattering more than the reason I first showed up. The filmmaking didn’t end up being my path, but the computers stuck with me. These days I’d call myself a Program Manager & AI builder, and the line from that class to the work I do now is a lot longer and stranger than I could have imagined at the time.
I guess that’s why the disk was still sitting in the garage after all these years. Some part of me wasn’t ready to be done with where it started.
Do you still have anything from your early days, an old disk, a notebook, a first computer? I’d like to hear what it is and why you kept it.