When I was in high school our library got a new computer lab.

By “computer lab” I mean like 10 old computers networked together (but not connected to the Internet because there wasn’t really one yet) stuck in a tiny room off the library.

You couldn’t do much except look up reference material from the library, write papers, and do other library research-type things.

But the computers were all networked together…and they were also networked to the other computers in the school (we had a typing class that used computers in another part of the school too).

So every day during study hall I’d be in there digging through the network, learning everything I could about it. I probably knew more about that network then the school did.

One of my favorite things to do was to wait until the typing class started a timed typing test to see how many words the kids could type per minute. I’d wait half a minute or so and then freeze all their computers.

Fun stuff.

The typing teacher eventually figured out it was me, and would come storming into the library to glare at me. But she couldn’t really prove anything, so I’d just smile and she’d storm away in exasperation.

One day I was poking around on the network when the head librarian came in with a group of about ten suit wearing people. I don’t know who they were but they had a self-important air to them.

In typical dog-and-pony show style, the librarian proudly showed off the new computers to the suits.

These are our new computers, they’re X brand, connected via blah blah blah and we’re very happy to have them. If you’ll please step this way…

He walked around the room pointing out different things about each computer. Then he got to the computer I was messing with, and with a slight hesitation said…

And this is John…we’re…not really sure what he does here…

After some polite chuckling, the suits all shuffled out of the room.

I’m not really sure why that memory has stuck with me all these years. I guess one of the reasons why I’ve always liked coding so much is because of the sentiment behind that librarians words.

“We’re not really sure what he does here…”

I like that.

I’m 34 years old now and people still don’t really understand what I do for a living. Most people just sort of understand that it’s “something to do with computers” and that I “work on the Internet somehow” and that I’m my own boss.

And I still like that.