In March of 2020 it was decided that schools and businesses would be shut down, and the American population, like most of the world, would make an attempt to isolate themselves in order to protect themselves from the pandemic-causing disease known as the novel Coronavirus, or COVID-19. 
Like most of my peers, I was told to stay inside, to isolate myself from others, and to wear a mask and wash my hands if I were to go outside. However, I did not put this free time to waste. Rather than sitting around playing video games, or watching movies and TV shows, I spent my time using YouTube and the Internet to teach myself the computer programming language C#. In the future, I knew I wanted to go into a career in the fields of computer programming, game development, and Virtual Reality simulations, so with only a very basic background in computer programming. I settled down and learned how to create my first game, starting with only Youtube videos, and the very basics.
After about two days of research, I made the decision to use Unity as my game engine after weighing its benefits versus another popular game engine, Unreal Engine’s. After around a month of work, I had developed my first game. While it was quite simple, and doesn’t even exist on my computer’s hard drive anymore, I had spent more time and effort on it than I’ve ever spent in a classroom. I had followed a tutorial I found on YouTube that was tailored to beginner programmers like me, and eventually made a small cube that would slide down a plane, with the user being able to move it from side to side with the arrow keys. This game taught me how easy it was to accomplish a daunting task with the proper resources. At first it was challenging, but the rush of excitement before running a new script, and the serotonin release after a success fueled me to overcome problems. After my first game was done, I grew bored of the 2D screen, and, after recently purchasing my first virtual reality headset, I decided to delve into virtual reality and how to create my own virtual worlds. 
This experience taught me that it’s easiest to take a task one piece at a time. When I first started my own game, rather than following a tutorial, I researched each aspect of my game chronologically as I came up with ideas. Each time I wanted to be able to do something new in my virtual world, like flying a broomstick, or shooting a gun, I could do the research for each aspect, learning more and more about interactions, game physics, animation, 3D modeling, and C#. The one game I spent my most time on was based on Quidditch, the wizard sport from the Harry Potter series. I created the flying broomstick, the point system, the pitch, and other important aspects of the game. This was an amazing experience as it helped me gain many skills that I believe I will need in the future. This also taught me that I don’t need a classroom to learn. If I want to put my mind to something, the internet is full of opportunities to learn and develop skills, while school is important for my all around skills, it should not be relied upon for everything. While some may spend their days wasting away on social media, that is not all the internet is therefore. My experience showed me that the internet is an incredible tool for learning and the pursuit of knowledge.