To me, a true hacker is somebody who values knowledge above all else and would go to any length necessary to obtain the knowledge that they seek. They see rules and regulations as something that restricts their path to obtaining knowledge and thus, something to be circumvented.

Then there are people like me who learned how to hack primarily as a way to feel some sort of power in an information ruled world because of constant abuse by my mother and being bullied at school made me feel like a powerless, worthless nobody.

Not to mention, my mother had me so screwed up by telling me how I would always need somebody to take care of me and I would never be anything on my own and what not that I was utterly convinced that I would have to learn how to be a black hat hacker to take care of myself because I was unable to take care of myself or do things like everybody else.

So yeah, I was messed up. It's crazy how far I've grown. Perhaps now, I could call myself a true "hacker" based on my own definition of one because obtaining knowledge has once again become one of my top priorities in life.