As a Webmaster, I design, create, and manage websites. I’ve been doing this for about three years now ever since the age of fourteen. I’ll admit the fact that my thirst for knowledge is more of an obsession than a hobby, I’m sure others will agree. I fear it may be my downfall, but I won’t stop until my thirst is quenched and I hold the knowledge of all that is cyberspace. Until then, I’ll do with the knowledge I have and I’ll explain what first sparked my interest in learning about the cyber world.

Chao Island was the first website I joined. It was a website and message board dedicated to chao creatures from the Sonic Adventure games. The community seemed to be an interesting bunch, so I decided to register for the forums. Once I registered, I was able to post and make topics. Basically, I was a member of the community. The fun I had networking on the board soon got to my head. I was posting all over the board like crazy, making numerous topics and replying to as many other posts as possible. I guess I wanted to be the most active member of the board, the one with the highest post count. Even then, with the small amount of knowledge I had, I considered myself special. I didn’t want to be just another member of the board; I wanted to be known for something. Eventually, I was known… for being one of the biggest spammers on the board.  My rank title was changed to “Balloon Poster”, which only added to the embarrassment. I considered that the climax point for my under-estimated method of getting attention.

After that, I stopped posting for a while. I didn’t post again until I started feeling the need to post. Other members had questions. I had answers. I thought to myself, “Why not help them?” Beforehand, I really only asked more questions in such topics and added to the confusion. Now, I was helping more members and answering more questions than the whole staff combined. At least, I thought I was… What I didn’t realize was the fact that I was missing out on a forum. In this forum’s topics, members were advertising links to websites and/or message boards they had created. These kids couldn’t have been any older than I was at the time, and they were already designing websites. Such success was unheard of in the San Fernando Valley, where I lived. I thought, “Heck, if they can do it, why can’t I?” And so, the journey began.

HTML, Hypertext markup language, is what I was searching for on Google. It’s the language used to display web pages on the Internet. In order for me to make websites, I had to learn it. I googled for all the tutorials the search engine could find. To my surprise, I found more than a handful of them. I stayed up late at night plenty of times trying to learn the accursed language. I took it one step at a time. First I learned how to display an image, then text, then how to modify the text. Often, I stressed out and decided to avoid it for a while. Then, I’d go right back to it about a week, maybe a month, later. It took me about a year to learn HTML and two years to master it. I would’ve learned the language in a lot less time had it not been for my stress and laziness. Fortunately, my stubbornness and determination pulled me through. The point is, I learned the language, and I was well on my way to becoming a Webmaster. I didn’t stop there, though. Soon enough, I was researching other languages used to make websites more interesting. CSS, Java, PHP, Perl, Lisp, and more. I was determined to learn them all.

Eventually, I was chosen to become a moderator on the Chao Island message board, not because of my knowledge, but because of my ways of interacting on the board. I was always being helpful. I believe the logic of coding is what changed me. It helped me look at the cyber world in a different perspective. The board eventually went offline; the administrator had to go to college and just didn’t have time to administrate the board. This is probably another reason for why I was inspired to learn what I did. Up to this point in time, I’ve mastered HTML and CSS, Cascading Style Sheets. Now, I plan to conquer the language of PHP – Hypertext preprocessing. It deals more with the programming of a server than it does with web design. Regardless, I’m sure whatever language I learn next will help me in the long run and aid me in becoming a world known programmer.