Hello, Internet

I first met the internet in 1997. I was introduced to it by my friend Faheema in her father's study. It must have been Eid at the time, because we were in our jallabiyas and thobes. I also remember right before getting on the computer, our other friend Yasmin was showing us the piercing on her left pinky fingernail.

Here, this is called Yahoo, Faheema said. You can write letters and send it to people without having to go through the post office, she said. Here, I'll show you this chain letter I got from my friend in another country, she said.

Of course I didn't fully understand it. Just like how time travel and physics fly right past my head. I just nodded and went with it.

Up until then, the only things I did on our own computers at home (we had two: one in my dad's study, and another in my mom's room, and neither had internet) was to learn how to type 70 words per minute on those typing games, write short stories, and play Solitaire and Minesweeper (which I also didn't understand, really).

I don't even...

After I'd decided I wanted to get to know the internet more, my dad would drop me off at this females-only internet cafe near the Bicycle Roundabout in Jeddah every other day for a few hours. They charged 50 riyals per hour. 

50 RIYALS. I'd spend 150 riyals minimum per day. I wonder now why my dad never asked what it was I did with that money, or why I needed that much. 

I pay about that same amount for unlimited internet per month now, and even that I think is expensive. 

So yeah, I spent most of my first dates with the internet on Yahoo. I don't remember much of it. I do remember I found it so difficult to comprehend, and maybe I still do. 

Like, THE INTERNET, you guys. How? Why does it exist? How does it exist? What higher being manipulates it? How many other internets are out there? 

We haven't even figured out how or why the physical world exists and now we have the internet, too. 

What was it like for you?