Love at First Prompt

It was December 27, 2024 — the first time I ever used ChatGPT.

At that time, I was going through a rather dark period. My mood was low, and many things in life weren’t going the way I had hoped. Then, unexpectedly, something shifted. In the middle of those ordinary chat interactions with ChatGPT, I felt a sudden spark — like a beam of light breaking through the gloom.

It was a surprisingly bright feeling.
For the first time in a long while, I felt like I could do things I had never been able to do before. I felt like I could push beyond my own limits. Like maybe — just maybe — my ideas and dreams weren’t as far out of reach as I had always thought.

That day, when I later looked back at my emotion tracking, I saw that I had marked it as a “big smile” — right in the middle of an otherwise sad December.

Now, things feel very different.

I find myself genuinely enjoying the process — exploring line by line of code, diving into new knowledge, all from the perspective of a QA. I never thought I would like this field, let alone love it. And yet here I am.

These days, going to work feels exciting. Every day is an opportunity to experiment with new ideas, to take on new challenges, and to build something from the chaotic mix of thoughts in my head. In the past, as someone who often felt slow and easily overwhelmed, I would have given up almost immediately — stuck at the very first debugging problem, unable to move forward.

But now, something has changed.

I’ve started to truly love this work — not just “IT” as a field, but the deeper essence of being a tester. There’s a real desire in me now: to find quality, to contribute meaningfully to the products I care about. And for the first time, I feel like I can actually do it.

A big part of that comes from AI.

With AI helping me generate and debug code, it feels like many of my old limitations — my slowness, my difficulty in diving deep into complex details, the need to remember too many things at once — are no longer barriers. It’s as if I now have an assistant that fills in those gaps.

And interestingly, I don’t just rely on it — I guide it.

Sometimes I feel more like a mentor or a teacher, showing the AI what I want, shaping how it should think, helping it learn the right way to approach problems. Playing around with it is genuinely fun. Each workday becomes a day of discovery — a day of enjoying something new.

And it didn’t stop at ChatGPT.

I started exploring a whole ecosystem of AI tools — Claude, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot — each with its own strengths, each opening a different door. I began experimenting with new concepts like AI agents, skills, and automation workflows. It felt less like using tools, and more like assembling a team — a system of intelligence that could support, extend, and even challenge the way I think and work.

The more I explored, the more I realized: this isn’t just about coding faster. It’s about thinking differently.

What’s even more surprising is that this feeling reminds me of who I used to be.

Back when I was a physics major in high school, I truly loved physics. I loved observing the world and trying to understand the deeper reasons behind everything — the principles, the “why” beneath the surface. I studied with passion, and I believe I achieved some meaningful successes back then.

But ever since graduating high school and moving into university to study IT, I hadn’t felt that way again. It had been a long time since I last experienced real passion — that sense of going all in.

And now, somehow, that feeling is coming back.

For the first time in years, I feel something I thought I had lost.

The curiosity to explore.
The excitement of building something from nothing.
The willingness to go deep, to understand, to keep going instead of stopping at the first obstacle.

AI didn’t just give me tools — it changed the way I approach problems, the way I learn, and the way I see my own limits.

I’m no longer stuck at where I used to stop.

And maybe that’s the biggest shift of all —
realizing that the limits I struggled with for so long were never fixed…
I just didn’t have the right way to move past them.

Now, every day feels like an open space.

And for the first time in a long time, I’m not holding back anymore.