My first memory of a computer is from when I was about 5 or 6 years old. I was at school, where my mother worked. I don’t remember many details from that day, but I remember somehow ending up in the computer lab. In the lab, there was a man sitting in front of one of the computers. I remember he promised he would come over to me as soon as he’d finished his thing.
The lab was a small room with tables along the perimeter of the walls and open space in the middle. The tables were pushed together and on them there were computers with bulky monitors. There was also a specific smell - a combination of plastic, paper, dust, and old TV. The floor was made of wood, painted brown, and I could separate its smell from the rest of the smells - many classrooms in the school had the same floor. I could hear a sound that was similar to the sound of the light bulbs in school classrooms, with periodic beeps and the metallic, scratching sound of the springs in the keyboard.
Once the man was free, he turned on the computer next to my chair. I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, but I was very excited and curious. I remember that feeling very well, like waking up on January 1st and knowing that there is definitely something for you under the tree.
He connected a game for me and explained how to play it.
I don’t remember exactly what happened after that (I’m sure I played until my mom took me), but from that day on I couldn’t miss any opportunity to interact with a computer.
Every time I would visit someone who owned a computer, be sure: I tried to at the very least push some buttons on it.