How a Simple HTML Page Changed My Life

If there is one thing that has remained constant throughout my life, it is my curiosity about computers and how things work behind the scenes.

My interest in technology started long before I understood what software engineering, cybersecurity, or artificial intelligence even meant. As a child, I was fascinated by the idea that people could create things out of nothing but code. I wanted to understand how websites worked, how applications communicated with each other, and how technology connected millions of people around the world.

One of my earliest "aha" moments happened when I was in sixth grade. During an introductory technology class, we were learning Scratch and basic HTML. One day, I built a very simple search engine interface using HTML. Looking back, it was nothing impressive from a technical perspective, but at the time it felt magical. I had written a few lines of code, refreshed the page, and suddenly something I had imagined existed on the screen.

That feeling changed me.

For the first time, I realized that technology was not just something I consumed. It was something I could create.

From that moment on, I became obsessed with learning more. I spent countless hours exploring the internet, watching tutorials, reading forums, and experimenting with anything I could get my hands on. Around the same time, another dream began to take shape. One day, I wanted to come to the United States, complete my education here, and eventually work at one of the world’s leading technology companies in Silicon Valley.

Years later, that dream still drives me.

Building My First Online Community

When I was around fourteen years old, I launched my first serious project: TeknoFRM.com (short for Techno Forum).

The platform was built on MyBB and was designed to become a community where people could discuss technology, share knowledge, and help one another. Some of its archived pages may still exist on the Wayback Machine today.

For a teenager, managing a growing online community was an incredible learning experience. At its peak, the forum reached well over a thousand active members. Unfortunately, school and other responsibilities prevented me from investing the time required to continue scaling it, but the lessons I learned there would stay with me for years.

TeknoFRM was where I first learned about community management, digital governance, moderation policies, user engagement, and platform administration. It was also where I started getting hands-on experience with technical concepts that would later become highly relevant to cybersecurity.

I created and managed databases. I performed my first SSL certificate installations. I experienced the frustration of seeing a website compromised. I learned how to restore backups, apply software patches, troubleshoot issues, and keep systems operational.

Without realizing it at the time, I was getting my first exposure to the fundamental concepts of security: protecting systems, minimizing risk, maintaining availability, and recovering from incidents.

Creating Hayalperest.org

A few years later, around 2018, when I was still in high school, I launched another project called Hayalperest.org.

The word Hayalperest translates to Dreamer in English, which perfectly reflected both the platform's purpose and my mindset at the time.

Unlike my technology-focused forum, Hayalperest was designed as a blogging platform for poets and writers. The goal was to give authors their own space where they could publish their work and connect with readers.

Back then, learning web development was far less convenient than it is today. We did not have AI assistants capable of explaining complex topics instantly. Most problems required hours of research, experimentation, mistakes, and troubleshooting.

I built the platform using WordPress and spent countless nights navigating plugins, configuration files, themes, and source code. Whenever I wanted to add a feature or customize something, I would dive into the website files, modify code, test changes, break things, fix them, and deploy updates.

Those experiences taught me a valuable lesson that still applies today: the best way to learn technology is by building things.

My First Steps into Cybersecurity

Although I was passionate about technology, I did not always have access to the resources, equipment, or opportunities that would have allowed me to fully explore my interests.

Most of my progress came through self-learning.

During my high school years, I also began discovering cybersecurity. I remember experimenting with Kali Linux, exploring various security tools, and trying to understand how attackers and defenders approached systems differently.

My home lab was far from ideal. The computer I used felt more like a toaster than a workstation, and many tasks took an eternity to complete. Still, that never stopped me from experimenting.

I spent time learning about password attacks, authentication mechanisms, network analysis, and basic penetration testing concepts. I became fascinated by social engineering and phishing attacks because they demonstrated an important truth: security is often less about technology and more about people.

Around the same period, I encountered my first web application vulnerability. While using a social media follower-growth service, I discovered a cross-site scripting (XSS) issue that allowed users to bypass certain usage limitations. Rather than exploiting it, I reported the vulnerability to the website.

That experience introduced me to responsible disclosure and reinforced a lesson I still carry with me today: technical skill is valuable, but integrity matters even more.

Entrepreneurship at Nineteen

After graduating from high school, I initially believed that pursuing law, particularly technology and information law, would be the right path.

I enrolled in law school, but my entrepreneurial ambitions remained alive.

In 2020, at the age of nineteen, I founded my first startup venture: Antepsofram.com.

The platform connected customers with local producers offering traditional regional foods and products. Building the business turned out to be far more challenging than I had anticipated.

Because the platform operated within the food industry, regulatory compliance became a major part of the process. I had to obtain various approvals, communicate with government agencies, and navigate requirements that were entirely unfamiliar to me at the time.

Eventually, the platform became operational and sales began to arrive.

Just as things were starting to gain momentum, another chapter of my life opened.

A New Beginning in the United States

At the time, I had been applying to universities in the United States.

Fortunately, I received an acceptance from a school in Illinois.

Studying Computer Science had been one of my biggest dreams for years, and after discussing the opportunity with my family, we decided that I should continue my education in the United States.

In 2021, I packed my life into a few suitcases and moved across the world.

Looking back, it was one of the most difficult and rewarding decisions I have ever made.

Finding My Direction

My university years were filled with challenges, growth, and countless lessons. If I were to describe every project, every setback, and every achievement, this article would be significantly longer than it already is.

One period stands out in particular.

During my junior year, OpenAI's ChatGPT began attracting mainstream attention. Although only a few years have passed since then, the pace of innovation in artificial intelligence has been extraordinary.

Like many others, I found myself asking an important question:

What can I do differently to make a meaningful impact in this field?

I have always wanted to become the type of professional people actively seek out when they need expertise, someone known for both technical ability and practical problem-solving.

At the same time, AI created a new challenge.

Technology suddenly felt bigger than ever.

There were thousands of possible paths, specializations, industries, and emerging opportunities. Data Science, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, AI Engineering, Platform Engineering, and countless others all seemed exciting.

The problem was not a lack of options.

The problem was having too many.

For months, I wrestled with questions about where I should focus my efforts. Which field should I choose? Which specialization would remain valuable in the future? How could I position myself to contribute meaningfully to the next generation of technology?

One thing became increasingly clear.

Whatever path I chose, artificial intelligence had to be part of it.

During my junior and senior years, I took a variety of data-focused technical courses, including Natural Language Processing, while continuing to strengthen my Computer Science foundation. Those experiences helped me better understand both the capabilities and limitations of AI systems.

At the same time, I began researching the future of cybersecurity.

The deeper I went, the more convinced I became that the security industry is entering a fundamental transformation.

Traditional security operations rely heavily on manual workflows, repetitive investigations, and human-driven decision-making. While these approaches remain important, the scale and sophistication of modern threats are growing faster than human teams alone can handle.

AI is changing that reality.

Security teams are increasingly using AI to analyze alerts, prioritize risks, investigate incidents, automate repetitive tasks, and accelerate response times. Beyond that, the rise of agentic systems introduces entirely new possibilities for autonomous security operations.

At the same time, AI itself introduces new attack surfaces.

Questions surrounding model security, adversarial attacks, AI governance, data protection, and responsible deployment are becoming increasingly important. This is one of the reasons why I believe AI Security will become a critical discipline in the years ahead.

The cloud is another major piece of this transformation.

Modern organizations are rapidly moving away from traditional on-premises infrastructure. Applications, data, and services are increasingly hosted in cloud environments powered by massive global data centers. As organizations continue this transition, Cloud Security becomes not only important but essential.

These trends ultimately led me back to cybersecurity.

I realized I needed a structured roadmap and a stronger foundation.

With guidance from an incredibly talented Security Engineer at Google, the confusion I had been experiencing gradually turned into confidence. I focused on strengthening my understanding of networking, operating systems, security principles, threat detection, incident response, logging, monitoring, risk management, and defensive security practices.

For the first time, my path began to feel clear.

The Next Chapter

In May 2026, I graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science. Completing my degree was a major milestone, but I knew it was only the beginning of a much longer learning journey.

As I explored where I wanted to specialize and how I could combine my interests in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies, I realized that continuing to build practical, hands-on skills would be critical.

Recently, I discovered Per Scholas, a nonprofit organization that provides career-focused technology training programs.

One program immediately caught my attention: Cybersecurity with AI Tools.

The program is an intensive fifteen-week training experience covering cybersecurity operations, network defense, security architecture, threat detection, vulnerability management, SIEM technologies such as Splunk, and the practical integration of AI into security workflows.

After reviewing the curriculum, I knew it aligned closely with the direction I wanted to pursue.

Fortunately, I was accepted.

In my next article, I will share my thoughts on the program, the technologies we are using, and the lessons I learn throughout the journey.

More importantly, this blog will serve as a record of my growth.

I want to document what I learn, what challenges I encounter, what mistakes I make, and how I continue improving over time. If someone discovers these articles years from now and finds them helpful, inspiring, or simply relatable, then sharing this journey will have been worth it.

This is only the beginning.