With the news last week of the death of Steve Jobs, so many are coming forward with their stories of how Apple forever changed their lives and their world. It is rare that one person's life affects so many to the degree that Steve Jobs' did, and the news of his passing is one that will linger with us for a long time to come.
Here is our story.
I grew up in an Apple Macintosh family. My dad set up our first Macintosh on the living room floor, where I sat cross-legged for hours in front of that little screen, playing in MacPaint. I was about 3 or 4 years old. I filled in shapes with zig-zags and solids and learned that it was possible to scribble using a computer. From that time on, we were always devoted to the Apple brand, which at times wasn't always easy. In school, not only was I a lone Protestant amid a sea of Catholics, but I was a Mac user, frequently heckled about being left in the dust. And for a while, it did start to feel like we were being left in the dust amid the fancy IBMs and the computer games that were not Mac-friendly. In 7th grade I joined the computer club- well, it wasn't really a club, but rather a time after school on Mondays and Wednesdays when students had access to the computer lab. It was a year of the doldrums for me, and in searching for some recreation I joined a few other students (mainly geeky boys) amid the rows of white Macs in the chilly and sterile computer room. The other boys who met after school were very computer-savvy. They preferred their IBMs, but they had respect for Macs, and in turn, respected me (and they, being heckled enough themselves for numerous reasons, didn't give me a hard time when I used MacWrite instead of Microsoft Word). Sitting there and writing with them after school made me feel that perhaps dorky was the new cool.
So this was my background- my relationship with Apple. My high school graduation gift was my purple iMac, the second coming of Apple, and to this day I think that has been my favorite computer. It was beautiful, it played so nicely, and it was all mine.
This is what I brought to the conversations that started up between a man at the Caribou Coffee where I worked and me. Turns out he was also a Mac man and had always been. He understood my loyalty with Apple. One day he told me that he was looking to sell his little MacBook laptop, and wondered if I was interested. To which I replied, "Um, YES." We chose a night when I wasn't working, and met at the Caribou. He sat next to me and opened up the laptop, explaining her tricks. I began feeling very overwhelmed, but I did not know if it was because of the amazing computer that was soon to be mine, or if it was because I was suddenly shoulder to shoulder with this guy whom I think I was starting to like. Later, when I sat at home with the laptop, admiring it, part of me kept thinking that it had been his. A couple days later, I had a quick question about the laptop, so I sent him a text.
And instead of texting me back he CALLED me on the phone, for the very first time.
That was the start of it, almost 9 years ago. Now we have a Mac Mini, two MacBooks, two iPod Touches, an iPod Nano, an iPod Shuffle, two iPads, Apple TV, and an 11 month old daughter.
That is what Steve Jobs did for us.
Click here for my husband's version :-)
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