I often wonder how I would have made a living and a good life without the internet. I finished high school in 1994 with little career inspiration, landed in a generic business degree that held little interest for me, but it was at that uni campus I discovered the internet in early 95.

I immediately found it exciting and grasped how transformative it would be, and quickly got to work learning web development and finding material and communities related to my interests (mostly obscure Australian rock bands). It's been the platform for my career ever since, and has also enabled me to go deep learning about some unusual health and emotional challenges that had afflicted me since early life, and enabled me to make profound changes to my health and wellbeing, leading to the place I'm at now, with a solid career, great relationship and a wonderful young son.

When I think about the person I was and the path I was on when I finished high school, it's hard to imagine how it would have turned out well had I come of age in a different era.

Which is not to say life has been easy or simple; quite the opposite, and the internet has no doubt made life more complicated and challenging in many ways, My life has had several major ups and downs that probably wouldn't have been as pronounced without the internet. But I still have no doubt at all I'm in a much better place than I'd have been without it.