Gor's World - Am I Dreaming?

Wednesday

Here I am getting ready for my first television chat show. I am very excited. I am sitting outside waiting to go in. I feel a bit nervous but I think I will be OK for this. This week has been busier than usual because I had two reporters come to interview me about my Thailand Life web site. One of them worked for a Singapore newspaper. When I started my first web site four years ago I never dreamed I would have a chance to be in a television program. No-one knew who I was then. But now I shall be on television. My very first chat show!!! I think in the chat show I have to talk to an English woman for about half an hour. I hope I shall understand her questions. I am a bit scared that my English isn’t good enough.

It all started back in October 1997. It was the school holidays and I was at home doing nothing. One day, my teacher, Richard Barrow, called me and asked me to come to Sriwittayapaknam School to make a web site with my friends. At that time I had no idea what a web site was. I didn't even know about the Internet . Lots of questions came up in my mind: Why do I have to do it? What will I get out of it? But, I still chose to come to school. At least I could be with my friends. I am now very happy that I made that decision.

My first homepage only had eight pages and the style was very child-like, but at that time I thought it was a very good site. It took me nearly three weeks to finish it. Now, four years later, I have a weekly web magazine for which I produce about seven pages every week. I am very happy because I get about 3000 visitors a day from more than 100 different countries.

The first time that I felt like someone famous was when the school had a visitor called Aaron from Ireland. He came to visit our school for one week. He saw my newspaper clippings on the school noticeboard and he told one of the teachers that he knew me. The first time I saw him, he asked me lots of questions about me, my girlfriend and my web site. "How is everything going with your girlfriend?", he asked. "Were your parents angry when you crashed their motorcycle?" Obviously he had been reading my Secret Diary. It is weird because it is like he knows me but he doesn’t really. He had never seen me face to face before.

Thursday

It's the next day now. The television chat show was easier than I thought. I felt like I was sitting there talking to my friends. She made me feel comfortable. I told her about my web site and that I have started to earn some money for myself by selling products on the Internet. I am also helping to teach English and Computer at Sriwittayapaknam School.

So now I have my own money and I don’t have to keep asking money from my mum.

BBC World Service from London just rang. They want me to do a radio interview for them. Richard told me that they are very famous. More than 40 million listeners worldwide. Now I am really scared. Richard told me not to worry about it. He always said that good things would come if I worked hard. I didn’t believe him for a long time but he kept pushing me and my friends to work harder. Now I believe him. I want to tell all of you who are reading this story that don't give up too easily, keep going and that day will come for you too. Trust me.

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"Am I Dreaming?" was originally published in the Learning Post, a supplement of the Bangkok Post. It is used here with their kind permission.