We got in Hamburg few days before Christmas so we had enough time to see the city, this time. I had a feeling that people in Hamburg are depressed which was a drag as I got there not too happy about the recent development of my life. To be honest, first few days I thought I would be better at home, or anywhere else. But then the congress started and it got a bit better, but the feeling of something missing didn’t go away. Even worse, I wasn’t the only one who had that feeling. As every normal guy would do, I fixed it with rakija, of course.

Although it’s important for me to tell you the whole state of mind I was in, that’s not the reason I’m writing this post. We (LUGoNS) were lucky enough to have a table beside MetaLab guys. Amount of happiness coming from them was amazing. As always, CCC was full of wonderfully talented hackers and I had great time at the Python Booth, for example. Great time passes fast, and the closing ceremony was getting close.

For me, the whole point of going to 32C3 was closing ceremony. It was really emotional for me. Emotional enough to find a shoulder to weep on it. Tears just broke out of me and all bad feelings started to pour out of me. What really happened on that ceremony was that the guy who was talking said something I didn’t know it will be such a trigger = “Look around you, remember small things and take it home”. And I did. That’s when I realized what is going on.

The background story first. Back in 1999. my country was bombed by NATO. Few days of that period I spent in a moist, old basement with my parents, PC motherboard and a magazine with audio synthesizers. That basement had no electricity, toilet or anything, so when something was needed we went to the house. What’s important is that it was full of equipment. At that point I made a promise to myself that I will have huge pile of electronics one day. Meaningful electronics! That “remember the small things” somehow reminded me of that day 16 years ago. After coming to my senses my girlfriend asked me “what the hell was that?”. The only thing I kept repeating was “I made it”. I was repeating it like hypnotized.

I’m a co-founder of a hackerspace and we’re piling wonderful electronics. I barely hold my self together while writing this and remembering = “from the shitty basement to a hackerspace”.

Thank you CCC, I will remember it all!