My name is Kris (@krispee) and I come from Croatia. After a week on steem I decided to create introductory post so you can better meet me and also share my experiences on steem.

I am 25, I have been with computers since I was 5 years old. My parents are in informatics so it was always around me, also my younger brother is in so we have always played around computers. From playing games with him on LAN all the way to discovering world of internet, building websites, programming simple things. I remember having my first computer when I was five, I turned it on/of constantly and that is the way I killed it haha. From then on I always used shut down also never physically disconnecting usb, hd and other externals. That was my first lesson. From then onward I learned more and more things, from first time cracking games, booting and installing windows to managing LAN connections.

Then somewhere around 2003,2004 I went first time on internet. I remember how he had given me 1 hour on his computer with google in front of me. I was amazed, asking all sorts of questions that was answered with text links that was window to another worlds with new people there. That was time of internet text age, forums were dominant force of the internet with few pictures here and there. In the beginning as I was having a little time on internet (1-3 hours a week) I was preparing my questions.

My brother and I shared bedroom and in it we had two desk with two computers that we from some time connected on LAN. It was amazing period, we played games like civilization, rome total war, warcraft, empire earth, age of empires (yeah we like a lot of strategy games) and many more. As time passed our father bought router and from then on we all were connected with all the world. I remember first time I played game on internet, that was Call of Duty 2. One evening I accidently managed to connect to server (weird thing was that it was pirated as at that time we didn’t have much money) and moment after that I was in a battle with 20 other players from around the world. I was so happy and amazed that I played till 5am In next few weeks came our telephone bill and it was huge (at that time we had like 600 mb a month limit after they taxed each mb). I was in detention for a month and couldn’t use my computer, father took power cable but in few days I came with an idea to use his when I was home alone.

As time passed we got better mb package so I could be more on web. I connected and met a lot of new people since then and learned more about the world. Technology is my one passion but I have another and that is music. At first I was singing in children choir and from there I went to music school where I found that I have talent for piano and classical music. It was all weird to my family because nobody was musically inclined towards it. As time for high school came I had to make a choice between piano and computers and I choose piano. In primary school music was more like a hobby and when high school came I started treating it more serious. Since I needed to practise piano a lot, my informatics involvement decreased. I stopped playing games and started to only use computer when I needed.

Next ten years was all about music, playing concerts, going to masterclasses and so on. In first year of high school I got vitiligo, that thing $ucked me like crazy.

Here is excerpt from wikipedia on vitiligo:

Vitiligo is a long term skin condition characterized by patches of the skin losing their pigment. The patches of skin affected become white and usually have sharp margins. The hair from the skin may also become white. Inside the mouth and nose may also be involved. Typically both sides of the body are affected. Often the patches begin on areas of skin that are exposed to the sun. It is more noticeable in people with dark skin. Vitiligo may result in psychological stress and those affected may be stigmatized.

The cause is typically unknown. It is believed to be due to genetic susceptibility that is triggered by an environmental factor such that an autoimmune disease occurs. This results in the destruction of skin pigment cells.

As i didn’t know why and how I get it, doctors main point was that it was made by stress. This was really weird because I was at that point around 15 and most people who got it were much older. There were people who stopped it growing and had successfully healed it and removed from their body. Problem was that every human had another medicine(alternative or conventional) that worked to solve the problem. I tried all conventional medicines that best dermatologist in my city transcribed and nothing worked. The worst thing was psychological effect on my self esteem and self confidence. I believed that I couldn’t find girl, that people will laugh at me and all sort of stupid things I imagined. After around two years of having it, I accepted it and it became part of my identity. After some time of accepting it, it stopped growing and that was huge for me. As time went on I forgot that I have it, only remembering on occasional mentioning of people asking what was that. As years passed I build myself psychologically stronger and stronger, created beliefs that I will one day fix this problem, maybe in a month, five years or who knows how long but I was determined that I will not give up. Also all things I was telling myself when I got it was just bull...t because I had a girlfriend, lots of friends and nobody was laughing at me. As my mind had seen that, it started to dismiss all garbage I was first putting at first in it. In that process I discovered that we all can change as we like and that our inner creates outer world.

Finishing high school came time to go on audition on academy. That was another challenge for me because I didn’t passed piano audition. I tried few more times and finally entered to study music education. After three years I decided that I don’t see myself being a teacher to 20-30 children and doing that till rest day of my life. Also I become less and less interested and it wasn’t something I was feeling passionate about doing so I dropped out of college and decided to go back to computers, programming and maybe in the future trying to combine music and programming.

Two years ago I discovered one doctor that blend two creams that allegedly helped many people to remove vitiligo. I bought that cream and in a month my vitiligo started to shrink and today I don’t have much left. All this process made me so strong in every area of my life. I can’t say how much I am happy because of this and grateful on day to day basis. This year I decided to enter college for software engineer (here college is not expensive) and to learn all I can so in near future (next 5-10 years) I can implement technology and music together (when VR becomes like iphone I see huge potential).

In the meantime I discovered cryptocurrencies a week ago and because of @jerrybanfield video I discovered steem. I invested all that I had at that time in steem and in future will probably do more. I am influencing my brother to come here and I think I will succeed :D

Thanks to all beautiful community here and all people who are following me and also that in the past upvoted my posts. I hope you enjoyed reading about me, I have a lot more to tell you but I think this is enough for now. I am so happy that I find this community!

Till next time, Kris @krispee