I started using Linux when I was 12.
Getting my first computer I was excited to play games and just tinkering with it to see what I could make it do. Sadly, it came with an installation of Windows Vista, something I'm thankful for today since I learned a lot about troubleshooting but at the time was a major pain in doing what I wanted to do.
My school had a 10 week after-school program where you got to learn different programming languages, ranging from perl to JavaScript. Part of that program involved installing and using Linux.
I was immediately hooked. Trading the problems of Vista and everything that entailed with the problems of my Ubuntu installation were to me a godsend. Actual error messages?? People online with similar problems suggesting solutions that made sense?? What is this, and why isn't everyone using it??
Today it is foundation of my career, the reason of any academic success I've had, and a hobby that has brought me immense joy (and struggles with primarily Bluetooth, audio and getting games to work).
I'm so happy I found this amazing software, built in small and large contributions over many years by many of our times brightest minds and just regular people contributing solutions to their personal pet-peeves, fixations and use-cases. It is truly something that (for me) brings some much needed positivity and optimism of our future as a species and what we can accomplish.
Seeing how far we've come as a viable platform makes me very happy. Proton, KDE/Plasma, pipewire, Wayland and many more amazing projects we all use daily still give me an appreciation of what computers should be and what they are capable of.
So thank you. Whether you've contributed code or other things, interacted with the community, or just used this amazing software I hope you feel something similar to what I feel.
I love you all.
(And yes, I am very drunk right now.)