I started using "The Internet" just as a lot of that stuff (FTP, Usenet, BBS) was being replaced by AOL. I did do some of it, but most of it was on early AOL back when I didn't know I had a technical bone in my body, and I was still entertaining a fantasy of running away to live in a commune of Elves in the deep woods. I did use IRC a lot.

It wasn't until a CompUSA recruiter literally hired me on the spot in the cafeteria of my local community college in 2000 that I suddenly realized I had an aptitude for this stuff.