How did I get into all this? When? Where? Why? Hope it goes well, God willing 😀 Let me think for a moment, I’ll come back to you. Right around when OKS (Turkey’s old middle-school placement exam) ended, internet got hooked up at our place — I remember it very clearly. ADSL was just starting to spread. I even remember the first modem I got. They gave me a faulty one, I gave it back 2–3 weeks later, they handed me a new one, and I finally got online. I got online, but high school was starting — I’d been accepted to Akyazı Anatolian Teacher High School in Sakarya. Time to part with the internet. But at the same time my sister was preparing for her university entrance exams, and in case she’d end up studying outside our city, my parents transferred me back to Istanbul. There was a complication: Dr. Kemal Naci Ekşi Anatolian High School accepted me (well, of course, I was coming from an Anatolian Teacher school :D). But my Anatolian Teacher school wouldn’t let me go. Seriously, they wouldn’t release me for a while. Why? Sure, they loved me — but the real reason was that to leave an Anatolian Teacher school you have to complete a specific amount of time there. You can’t just leave. Eventually I made it back to Istanbul.
And the internet life that was about to drag my high school years to terrible levels began the moment I got back home. The minute I returned to Istanbul, not a trace of “studies” remained. I was 24/7 at the computer. Sure, I played games, but I’d been bitten by the website-building bug. The legendary TR.GG. I might be one of its first 50,000 members — I don’t quite remember. They have 4,636,761 members now. Picture that, and I was a kid, building content for sites like these by hacking around with code. And the place all that code came out of was my own site. I was pretty famous on tr.gg back then. I’m not exaggerating. I was really, really good. And I was going head to head with grown men. Of course, once you start enjoying that, who cares about high school anymore — especially one with brutal exams like an Anatolian school.
Sometimes I think: had I not struggled so much in high school, I’d be in a different place with the website stuff today. But whatever. Somehow high school ended too, thank God. The things that happened during that period though… they say “if I told it all, it’d be a novel” — mine wouldn’t be a novel, I’d make a whole volume out of what I’d write. A 20-volume series :D.
Let me tell you a short one. I was young, I’d uploaded a Digitürk match summary to YouTube. And shared it on senininternetin.net too. (Back then the site was getting 10–11k unique hits.) Turns out Digitürk has an internet team. Kid that I was, naïve, I’d written my email, my name, and if I remember correctly my hometown under the video. The guys emailed me: we will demand from you an amount equal to the views on YouTube. I froze. Couldn’t tell mom or dad. Finally I said “Bismillah” and told my mom. To my surprise, no anger, not even a tiny one. (Thank you, mom, from here. She’s never once been angry at me in moments like this — when I got myself in trouble — which is why I try not to get myself in trouble.) Then my mom said “let’s call Digitürk.” She called, talked it out, the case got cleared because I was a minor. But man, I went through it that day. Only God knows the state I was in. Then I emailed the Digitürk team. Deleted the site’s database. Deleted my YouTube account. Mom talked it out with the Digitürk team on the phone — and salvation. yeahhhh 😀 That’s why I never touched pirated stuff again. You can get burned. Watch out.
That’s a tiny short memory from my whole high school life. I have lots of stories like that. I tend to pick the “try and learn” route. Thank God I keep learning without getting into anything truly serious. My “try and learn” methods have cost me: 2 destroyed computers, 2 fried hard drives, 1 printer I took apart and couldn’t put back together, plus many other electronic and tech gadgets I’ve ruined. But, but, but — the reason I have more knowledge than many technical services today is exactly because of those experiences.
From there to here. Eventually I switched from senininternetin.net to senininternetin.com. Then, after a high school life I’d honestly describe as terrible due to my refusal to study — even though I think of myself as smart — I got into Computer Engineering at Kütahya Dumlupınar University. I won’t lie, I studied for the LYS for the last 1 month :D. I got into Computer Engineering — and then what? Friend, more Math, more Physics. No escape. Computer Engineering means you’re always at the computer — but if you’re not enjoying it… There’s no tangible project. No knowledge unless you learn it yourself. You have to study, period. Still, I’m glad I’m studying engineering — after years of saying “Computer Engineering,” it would’ve been a shame to switch to Mathematics, and I might not even have finished the degree :D.
I have a ton of stories to tell, more than I can write. I’d write them, but you wouldn’t read this much :D. Anyway, stay well. Peace be with you. Study your lessons. If you genuinely can’t study, then work for the job of your dreams. If neither — friend, don’t take this wrong, but what are you doing?
