There was one passage in this article that really resonated with my personal
experience:
So by the time you get to high school, you've gone
through the last 10 years not getting as much exposure
as boys. Even if you haven't lost interest, you feel
like you are behind. Now would you choose that field,
if you really wanted to succeed?
Okay, this is not deeply philosophical, just notes from my life...
The above statement sums up my personal experience perfectly. I'm no where
near a hacker. I've just recently got my first linux box up and running.
The last thing I really coded was some BASIC drivel in high school. Yet
I've always been drawn to computers and technology, and somehow I always
managed to pick up stuff on the side of whatever else it was I was "really"
doing with my life. Still, the statement above applies to me because I found
it hard to get the level of exposure to computers that I desired. My
parents refused to buy me one, so of course I had to rely on exposure in
school. I did get a lot of wonderful exposure at school, but thinking that
I would never get to take what I was learning and apply it outside of school
lead to a certain amount of apathy on my part - like "oh, well, I'll never
get my own computer, why bother learning this stuff (even if I do really dig
it). I also resented the fact that most of the boys I knew had computers -
their parents thought it was a great "toy" for them. To make a long story
short, by the time I graduated college I realized that "it's never too late
to become what you've always wanted to be (George Elliot)", so I bought my
very first computer as a graduation gift to myself. Still, I've spent the
last couple of years feeling very behind, like I'm making up for a lot of
lost time. It wasn't till I had the maturity and determination to do it on
my own that I really was able to pursue computers, but I think if I'd had
more support along the way, esp. from people close to me like teachers and
family, then I might have graduated with a BS instead of a BA.
~~~Nicoya...
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[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
