My first introduction to actual mechanical keyboards was while I was away at a military boarding school for a time. (It was for college prep, I didn't do anything too terrible to get sent there
)
My AP Physics teacher had a lot of really old lab equipment littering the room and sitting up on the shelves. I still don't know what half of it was or did, and I think he had forgotten by this point as well since he had been at that school for years and was probably ready to retire soon. Anyway, since it was a military school everyone was pretty strict, which meant no walking around class to look at or touch the stuff along the walls. This was enforced heavily, especially since the teachers made sure we were busy every minute of every class. Where I sat in my Physics class was right next to a cabinet in the back of the classroom with a friend of mine. Nothing really ever happened in class and we couldn't talk much until the day that I decided to open the cabinet next to me.
We were supposed to be working on an assignment but I got really bored and started messing with the door to the cabinet next to me. I always thought it was locked so I had never tried to open it. This day I accidentally pulled it open, and to my surprise I found that it was stuffed full of old mechanical keyboards, mostly model Ms but I don't really remember what others were there. I remember just pressing a key and instantly falling in love. All I wanted to do was hear the sound and feel the resistance and click of the keys as I pressed them. Unfortunately, my friend next to me and the teacher did not feel the way I did about the sound and got pretty upset with me. I had to run laps for "disrupting the class" but it was worth it. I'd usually try to hit the keys at least once everyday in class.
And that's when I realized that I love mechanical keyboards. Little did I know that it was the first step down this path. I wish I had smart and stolen one of those keyboards, there were so many and they obviously hadn't been used in decades.
