“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

Every programmer’s first line of code is usually print("Hello World"). But for me, my real “hello world” moment didn’t start with a line of code — it started with a block game and a curiosity I couldn’t shake off.

Where It All Began#

If I’m being honest, it all started with Minecraft.

I know, I know — but hear me out. I was just a kid, probably around 10 or 11, and Minecraft was my entire world. I’d spend hours building things, figuring out redstone circuits (which is basically logic gates if you think about it), experimenting with command blocks, and just… creating stuff. I didn’t know it at the time, but that game was quietly teaching me problem-solving, logical thinking, and the joy of building something from nothing.

Young me probably building something in Minecraft

Looking back, Minecraft was the seed. It made me the kind of kid who wanted to know how things worked — not just play with them.

Robotics Kid#

Around the same time, I got into robotics. Yeah, as early as primary school. I joined competitions, built robots, programmed them, watched them fail spectacularly, fixed them, and repeated the cycle. It carried on all the way through high school.

Robotics competition

Robotics was different from Minecraft though. It was physical. You could see your code move something in the real world. When your robot actually did what you programmed it to do — that feeling was unmatched. And when it didn’t? Well, you learned to debug before you even knew what debugging meant.

That whole experience made one thing clear to me: I was a STEM kid. Not because someone told me to be, but because I genuinely couldn’t stop tinkering with things.

The Workshop That Changed Everything#

Then came the moment that really hooked me.

I was 13 when I joined a 3-day workshop on game development. It was run by facilitators from Terato Tech Sdn Bhd, and we were building games using GameMaker Studio with C#. Three days. That’s all it took.

GameMaker Studio workshop

I remember drawing my own sprites pixel by pixel, learning how to animate them frame by frame, and then writing actual code to make them move on screen. Seeing a character walk, jump, and interact with the world because of something I wrote — that hit different. It wasn’t a redstone contraption or a robot following a line — it was a game. Something people could play. Something I created from scratch with just a laptop, some pixel art, and a bit of logic.

That was my real hello world moment.

After that workshop, there was no going back. I knew this was what I wanted to do. Not just as a hobby, but as a career. The feeling of turning an idea into something real through code — I was hooked.

Fast Forward#

Fast forward a bunch of years — through high school, university applications, late-night assignments, and way too many cups of coffee — I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering. Four years of learning system design, algorithms, databases, and all the CS fundamentals that turned a curious kid into someone who could actually build real things.

Day one of my degree — with my mum and dad

It’s been almost a year since I finished my degree, and I’m now working as a mobile developer at AEM Energy Solutions. The office is literally a few metres away from KLCC — which still feels surreal. Growing up, KL was always the dream city, and now I get to work right in the heart of it, building apps for a living.

Where I work now — right next to KLCC

Connecting the Dots#

When I look back at everything — the countless hours in Minecraft, the robotics competitions, that 3-day workshop, the degree — they all connect. Each one built on top of the other. Minecraft taught me to think creatively. Robotics taught me to think systematically. And that workshop? It showed me that I could combine both and actually build things that matter.

I wasn’t the kid who grew up in a tech household or had a developer parent guiding me. I just followed what excited me, and somehow it all led here — writing code for a living and still loving every bit of it.

So yeah, hello world. This is where it started. And honestly? I’m just getting warmed up.

Shoutout to my friend Zakwan for introducing me to Minecraft all those years ago. Honestly, if it weren’t for him showing me the game, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today. Might still be terrible at English too — half my vocabulary came from that game and watching YouTube tutorials about it. Thanks, Zack.