Memory Lane: What a Difference an Apple Makes

I was a tween in 1986 when I first worked on an Apple computer.  It sat in the back corner of my school classroom and we were given assigned times to work on it.  I recall it had a 5 1/4 inch floppy drive and a flashing green cursor, but have no recollection of what I did on the computer. 

Two years later, I was in junior high at a different school district taking a required computer class.  I again worked on an Apple computer until I had "paid my dues", so to speak, and was able to move up to one of the limited numbers of Macintoshes in the room.  I was in love!  This computer stuff was easy.  I remember thinking once I learned to type (which came the next year - backwards, I know) working on computers was going to be great.

Fast forward to high school where I took a variety of business and computer classes as some of my elective choices.  One of the offerings was desktop publishing on a Mac.  I remember loving that class, the teacher, and marveling at how simple the Mac interface was.  As a senior, my business teacher recommended that I take another class that focused on learning the PC interface as preparation for college.  My god, it was like taking a step backwards trying to learn WordPerfect 5.1 on a DOS-based system.  It got worse when as a college freshman I was required to take another computer basics class where we learned more DOS programs.  I missed my Mac, but I was suddenly immersed in a PC world.

That was about the time I met my husband who was a landscape architecture student.  Because of all the draft courses in his major, he used a Mac.  I used his computer a few times to write papers, rather than fighting for a computer in the labs spread across campus.  As my husband and I entered the workforce, our focused shifted to PCs and we drifted away from our beloved Apple products.

And then came the iPod.  It was musical magic.  I stopped buying cds and started converting our existing cds to play on the iPod.  Then my husband upgraded to an iPhone, which really helped with his work.  I was green with envy and couldn't wait until I was due for a phone upgrade.  On Mother's Day 2011, my husband gave me a white iPhone.  He was like a kid in a candy store as he helped me set up my new toy phone.  The first app I downloaded was the Ancestry.com app so I could have my trees handy!  While I never really cared about the kind of cell phone I had before, this iPhone has changed my life, just as I expect Steve Jobs thought it would.

Just last week while checking Facebook on my iPhone, I learned of Steve Jobs passing.  It's hard to describe how his innovations have changed the last 25 years for me.  Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs.  There will never be another like you.

Note:  I am not affiliated with Apple, Inc. or any of their products mentioned.  I am just a satisfied paying customer.
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