Yea looking back I think the barrier is so much lower today. I started programming in basic as well. While it was fun and fairly easy to get started, pretty quickly I hit a wall.

After doing some basic things I ran out of ideas on what to build next and there weren't many resources to guide me. There weren't any online tutorials or online courses to help you to keep moving. So pretty soon I gave up on it and didn't come back to it until well into college.