Here’s a short piece inspired by “mi primera Encarta” — that nostalgic, almost magical first encounter with the Microsoft Encarta encyclopedia in the late ’90s or early 2000s.

That CD was my first digital window. And like all first windows, it eventually closed — replaced by broadband, Wikipedia, YouTube. But every so often, I remember the whir of the CD-ROM, the click of the globe, and that quiet feeling of a whole universe fitting into a disc.

It came on a shiny CD-ROM, the kind that felt like holding a futuristic mirror. My father slid it into the bulky computer tower, and the machine whirred to life like it was waking from a long sleep.

I spent hours not doing homework, but following hyperlinks like breadcrumbs: from Marco Polo to kites to Mars . I didn’t know I was learning. I just knew I was traveling.