Renaissance Grrrl

I was granted that privilege because I grew up as the only white kid in my neighborhood in urban Detroit, and my mother was afraid of how many fights I was getting in when I left the house. I hacked on the computer because it was safer than going outside. If you want to call that machismo, so be it. To me at the time it struck me as the only reasonable course of action. I think attacking those who had those opportunities is the wrong answer, and perhaps a more constructive focus would be on exposing similar opportunities to more people -- the OLPC initiative springs to mind.

I was treated to this privilege because my mother worked 3 jobs to raise two kids and put herself through college. It was very much a privilege, but after the initial computer purchase, I had to pay for my own equipment. This drove me to write shareware, run paper-routes, etc. and motivated me in a way that is difficult to describe to feed my computing addiction.

I am terribly appreciative of the fact that she went out of her way and spent money she could scarce afford to make that opportunity for me. To this day, she teases me that she is jealous that I get to do something that I enjoy for a living. I appreciate that others lacked those opportunities, but I'll be damned if I'm going to apologize for making the most of it.

And for the record, I was 7. ;)

-Edward Kmett