I was a curious kid with a love for computers, stories, drawing, and anything I could tinker with, especially sketching and creating. My cousin was really into making comic strips, and it looked so cool I had to try it too. Honestly, he was way better than me, but I didn’t care. I was hooked. Creating things with a pencil just felt right.

At one point, my mom had to keep buying bottles of thinners because I figured out how to copy images from Huisgenoot magazine onto paper. It felt like magic. I’d trace photos and faces and turn them into little artworks. It was messy, but I was in my element.

When my dad brought home our first family computer, something clicked. I started playing around in DOS, poking through files until (oops) I stumbled onto his budget spreadsheet. Then came dial-up internet, and what a game changer that was. Obviously, we all watched Days of Our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful, but now we could read the storylines online before they even aired in South Africa. A new operating system followed, and suddenly my world opened up.