I previously posted this in response to a different HN question: As a high school student in the early 70's I was allowed batch access to the Naval Postgraduate School 360/67 as part of an Explorer scouting program. On the first day, I was shown how to use the 029 keypunch (in itself an amazing machine) for some simple JCL, then the hot card reader, how to wait for your 1403 printouts, and how I could get some IBM self-guided tutorials at the bookstore to learn FORTRAN. I could come and go as I pleased. It was like being transported to another dimension, and I was hooked on programming for life. I still program almost every day.
Wow interesting story.
For example, I was driven by a desire to make games as a child, but the most interesting thing is that over time, that desire grew into creating my own watch, and so I started learning C and writing code for the system, the board, and other things. I didn't buy any spare parts, so all that's left is the source code.
¯ \ _ ( ツ ) _ / ¯