10 Years anniversary of being online! :)

Inspired by Ruba's post i started thinking.. when i had my first experience with the Internet, and how it all started.. and i realised that this year.. i should be celebrating 10 years anniversary since i started my "online" life.. !

So lets go back in time, in 1998 i left Jordan to continue elementary school and high school in Macedonia, and my brother was Tawjihi at that time.. so he stayed in Jordan instead. The first year, we were communicating through phone calls (which were very expensive) and well the classical way Post mail (yea in 1998!) until the big day came.. when my bro came for the summer vacation a year later to Macedonia telling me the great invention called EMAIL.. and at that time i was computer illeterate even though i was 7 th grade, but we didn't own a computer at home.. and at school we were taught Computer on a "machine" called Sa5er... ma 3alena i didn't know what Windows is.. nor Microsoft is .. well because the "advanced" Computer lessons start from 8th grade at that time.

Few weeks later, in our small city.. the first internet cafe opened!! :D.. and to the astonishment of the owners.. who thought they will have to teach people.. my bro was the first one there.. almost everyday.. checking his email :D.. and teaching me!

Anyhow, that summer , he travelled back to Amman, and he didn't have time to teach me how to make my own email (i know!) .. i just learnt how to use my brother's email :D.. so he created another one.. and i started using his yahoo account.. so it was like.. i am Ayman.. and he is Ayman..sending to each other..

A month later.. we started taking it at school.. things started to get more clear! :D.. so.. i wanted to create my own email.. and thought well .. here is a chance to be creative..I was the one teaching what is the invention of EMAIL to my class mates.. :D.. and u know puberty and all.. u want to impress the girls... and the gang .. by ur "knowledge".. so i found out this cool ( at that time) email service page "lovemail.com". That year.. everyone was afraid from the 2000 issue.. and i stupidly enough wanted to have cocacola in my username :D.. so the output in my head was : cocacola2000@lovemail.com.. but ofcourse.. that was already taken (DUH!).. and i settled down with one of the suggested usernames : olala2000@lovemail.com.

So excited enough..i emailed my brother from it.. and he was like "shu hal mas5ara ya walad.. e3mal email 3edel".. hehe. So i started thinking of a new one.. i wasn't creative about the username.. and went from extremely funky domain.. into extremly boring one.. (mail.com) and since i was inspired a lot by the word "explorer" (IE) my next attempt was: samerexplorer@mail.com ( i know.. my brother still makes jokes about it.. until now).

Btw, i forgot to mention, that at that time.. since i was still learning (in my defence) i didn't know how to print out an email.. and sometimes the guy who worked there wasn't free.. so i used to copy my brother's emails handwriting..! so that i can read them to my parents!! poor samer.. was so stupid at that time :)))

A year later..i realised i should make a normal e-mail at yahoo.. or hotmail..! and my Mom suggested using my nickname in the family (which is abu samra).. to be as my username withsome prefixes or suffixes...

I tried that.. but it was already taken... so i tried samamiro.. which was how my brother used to call me since i was a kid.. up until today :) but .. my clever mind .. suggested samamiro15 (since i was about to turn 15 that year) @yahoo.com.. which was my first decent email address.. that i used for almost 3 years during which i went t Jordan.. :)

When i became 18.. i thought that its stupid to have samamiro15..! and at that time gmail appeared.. so my first gmail experience.. was with samamiro18@gmail.com. One year later.. i started realising my own stupidity (its good to be self critic no? :P) that its not practical each year t change ur username.. and decided to make a more sustainable email address that won't need any further change.. so the lamp over my head lit up.. and the samamiro86 idea emerged ! :)))

When i started second year university.. i realised i will need more professional email.. to send my homeworks at University.. and since i felt gmail is more professional (less colorful and adds compared to hotmail or Yahoo)... i created my current email (name.surname@gmail.com) .. for all official purposes.. and its the one assigned in my CV.

As time passed... my knowledge in the internet domain.. grew.. as i took courses in HTML and webDesign.. and became interested in blogging.. chatting.. skype.. facebook.. downloading.. groups.. and now twittering :D..

So from the stupid 13 years old boy..:D.. ( i was clever in other things hehe) who was afraid to print out an email.. 10 years ago.. now am twittering and blogging.. and designing my own webpage.. with a Mechatronics Engineering Bachelor Degree in one hand.. and faith and Optimism in the other to start my career.

I am really glad that things are a lot easier for the younger generation nowadays to learn.. and progess with the internet.. but they won't have such a stupid story to tell.. right?

Happy 10th Anniversary to my Internet Experience !