Reflection 2024
Looking back and looking forward
- In 1995 I was born on February 1st, in Rasht, Iran.
- In 1996-1998 I was 1-3 years old, and I have very few memories of then
- In 1999, my dad bought a computer. I randomly clicked on stuff and accidentally called someone who spoke in a foreign language.
- In 2000, my kindergarten tutor gave me a heavy drawing assignment for the 14-day Persian new year holidays, which I skipped, and then she forced me to do it all in 1 day. It traumatised me and I’ve had various nervous tics ever since.
- In 2001, I entered primary school, where I was frequently referred to as “smart”, while my best kindergarten best friend and now primary school classmate got labelled as “lazy” and “weak”.
- In 2002, I made a weekly wallpaper and drew a caricature of our principal (who was a very angry person) and saw him laugh for the first time. I
- In 2003, I got eligible to run in student council elections. I ran for it to speak up for the B and C and D students, and got elected (this repeated for the next 15 years, every year, in 4 schools, in 2 countries)
- In 2004, I saw my dad showing a “weblog” to my mom. My mom didn’t seem impressed, but I got hooked because the blog had a picture of a sunflower on it, which seemed to me like the first colourful thing about the internet. I made my first blog.
- In 2005, I made a webpage with 6 pictures of flowers, each leading to a unique Persian new year greeting. One of my blog fans loved it so much she named her new born kid after me. I learned that the virtual world could change things in the real world.
- In 2006, I got a Gmail invitation, and signed up for a newsletter that had weekly mini-courses on web analytics, journalism, media literacy, marketing, photography and etc.
- In 2007, I joined Twitter, which was at the time only being used by software engineers and UX people in Iran. I followed a bunch of them and read their tweets everyday.
- In 2008, I won a badminton championship at some state tournament, I also made random websites for random people to learn new tools.
- In 2009, I got my first design gig on Twitter
- In 2010, my family moved from Iran to Malaysia, and I went to the Iranian high school in Kuala Lumpur.
- In 2011, I made an invite-only facebook group for my class with both boys and girls in it (we had 2 different buildings in different locations, 1 for girls, 1 for boys)
- In 2012, I joined a football team in KL and made my first Malaysian friends
- In 2013, Obama-era economic sanctions were imposed on Iran and Iranians and most of my classmates went back to Iran over night (since Iranian currency’s value dropped rapidly). We weren’t affected directly since my dad’s income was in Malaysian Ringgit.