What I did was morally wrong and entirely illegal, but it was also heartfelt; born of a genuine desire to help the kids. To me, language can only improve via constant exposure and there was simply no way to move from ‘E’ to ‘A’ by watching Police N Thief.

But where does a teenager get high quality TV shows and media for cheap?

Piracy was the only answer I knew, so I gave it to them. To justify this questionable decision, I told myself that atas kids have National Geographic and HBO, so why shouldn’t kids from a ‘neighborhood’ school enjoy the same advantages?

Looking back, I’m not sure if I regret my actions.

The truth is, Singapore would be a vastly different place without Piratebay and other forms of illegal streaming. For most people, torrents were the only way to access Western shows like How I Met Your Mother or Breaking Bad. Growing up, only the lucky few enjoyed legal access.

For the remaining 99%, it was a process of checking the seed count and finding that magnet.

A simple process but a revolutionary one. Without it, I don’t think Singapore would be nearly as cosmopolitan as it is today.

This was certainly true for me. I was first introduced to piracy’s illicit pleasures by a friend in secondary school, who got tired of downloading Green Day on my behalf.

Little did I know how my world was about to be changed.

It was like stepping through the wardrobe in Narnia, or discovering a hitherto virgin continent filled with treasures ripe for plunder.

Prior to piracy, we would learn about the world via Newsweek magazine or occasional visits to the cinema. Although we understood the words, there would always be nuances that slipped by, jokes that elicited no chuckles and other cultural references which nobody understood.

It was quite maddening, like the silhouette of a beautiful girl forever disappearing around the corner.

Torrents completed the picture. Thanks to Bittorrent, we no longer needed to guess the characteristics of a Jewish person. We could just watch Howard Wolowitz on Big Bang Theory. Vampires and werewolves were no longer words on a page, but flesh-and-blood creatures that one must hunt like the brothers on Supernatural.

English teachers taught us the definition of words, but it was Piratebay and Kickasstorrents who provided meaning and context. Thanks to its vast library of ‘free’ content, we understood concepts like the ‘mafia’, ‘geek culture’ or ‘the one who got away’. Without it, Batman would remain a crazy rich bad-ass instead of an ‘anti-hero’.

Of course, it didn’t just educate us and broaden our horizons. It also provided hours of pure, unadulterated fun, a welcome diversion from the pressure of school.

For unpopular kids like me who had neither athletic ability nor musical talent, the torrent was a saving grace. I could bond with my friends by laughing our heads off at Borat or discussing rabid fan theories about Bleach. Social ineptitude mattered little if you had an opinion on who was the coolest Captain in Soul Society.

Even the long commute from home to school was transformed. With the complete works of Eminem on my iPod, the hour-long bus journey became more pleasure than chore.