Netizen

I'll introduce myself, I'm a Netizen like you.
When I first grasped the concept of identity (9 month old, looking at the mirror), I started developing both a urge to fit in and a need to stand above the crowd. I believe it's usual in all human beings, we need to feel accepted, but at the same time we wish to feel important and unique.

After I grew up a bit more (3 years old), I had no concept of borders and countries, the entire world was a bus or train ride away, just waiting to be visited. Then came the realization that there is war, there is hate and there are too many barriers all around.I was 8 years old, I read newspapers and I was terrified of the world, war could be upon my family in the blink of an eye, starvation, death...

I was a child who knew too much about the real world, no candy, no toy could push away the dark cloud I felt hovering above.When I was 12 years old I was cynical, I knew the cloud was above, but I no longer cared, I was numb. After the first thousand news of children starving, they become just numbers, statistics...

I never had a sense of nation, I feel happy for my country, but I was never a patriot, I could have been born anywhere, what defines us, is our ideas, our beliefs (not religious), our way of living, not the place you are born.

All in all, I did not fit in, I wasn't fond of Football, I didn't feel a dumb patriotic euphoria when Rosa Mota won the marathon, I read books and real newspapers instead of "A Bola" , I was aware of the world and not just of the Football league results.

Then came the Internet, I started using e-Mail and Gopher in 1992, then I started using Mosaic to browse the first few pages, after a few years I had my own webpage, several e-mail accounts and friends all over the world. That was the moment I felt I fitted, I had become a Netizen, the world was finally true to my 3 year old view. There are no borders, no countries.

Maybe it's a dream, but if it is, don't wake me up.