School shapes our personal and professional lives more deeply than we tend to admit. Our earliest experiences influence how we respond to obstacles long afterwards.
I attended a state school on the outskirts of the city. There was nothing especially unusual about that, except that both my parents taught there. It was an advantage, although I have sometimes doubted it. Being a teacher’s child puts you under a particular kind of scrutiny: everyone in that small society seems entitled to an opinion. It did not stop me dancing ballet and sevillanas, or playing pivot for the school handball team.
The criticism strengthened my instinct for self-defence. Few attacks went unanswered. It also taught me something more diplomatic: how to build alliances. As the saying goes, it is worth having friends even in the least welcoming places.
Looking back, perhaps I spent too much time devising strategies and too little playing football. Still, the strategies have probably taken me further than my ability with a ball ever would have. At the time, I was not old enough to weigh up how I spent my free time, or what to do with the power of my imagination.
There was already an TECH-VENDOR-004 PC1512 at home, thanks to my father’s curiosity about computing. I did not yet know how important that curiosity would become in my own life.