I want to emphasize how big the gap is between $3/mo hosting and free. I started programming when I was 12 and I learned I could submit a "website" instead of a very large history project. This was a very long time ago and I'm pretty sure my history teacher did it as a joke because most people didn't even know what a website was.

To get to the point, as a 12 year old coming from a home with absolutely no disposable income, free was the only option I had to try my hand and building a website. I had just built a computer the year before and thought it would be a nifty idea to try my hand in programming. I completed the project and used that skill to earn money during junior high, high school, college and in my career.

I'm not quite sure where I would be today if that teacher didn't put that option on the paper or, and more to the point, GeoCities didn't offer a 100% free way of my hosting my report about the Manhattan Project.

Fully sporting a GIF of a nuclear explosion.