iMourn: The Passing of Steve Jobs

I got my first Apple computer at the age of 13 or 14 years old. I begged and begged my parents... "please! I need to be able to make better videos!" I pleaded and prayed and hoped that maybe, just maybe, that iMac G3 would materialize on my doorstep. It did! That Christmas, I was gifted with the most wonderful gift a girl could ask for: the latest in technology in turquoise blue.

From the moment I became a Mac owner, I was A MAC owner. I never really wanted to use any other computer, even though both of my parents continued to use "those other computers." My reason for this was quite simple: the Mac understood me. I didn't have to search and read manuals and get frustrated. It was intuitive to the very person I was. It was a hands on machine that made using a machine an extension of the human experience rather than something that was contradictory to it.

I was well into my adulthood when I began to hear the name Steve Jobs. In fact, it was probably more around the time that my future husband and I bought our first iMac that we really started to look at who was behind the company. Steve Jobs was a genius in his field--no one could touch him. iPhones, iPads, even better technologies in computers... this guy knew how to revolutionize the technological experience for a new generation.

Sure, it all sounds a little built up, until you get down to the ways in which it has actually changed lives. For instance, when I first became a freelance writer and needed to work from home, I only had dial-up internet; we aren't talking in 1999--we're talking present day, 2010. The only tool that enabled me to accomplish this was the iPhone. I could check emails from home and know exactly what I needed to get on, and then I could reply easily and email them later in the day (via dial-up). It changed what I was capable of doing thereby changing the way I did business.

Apple products have changed the landscape of our lives. The impact has been broad and far reaching. Steve Jobs was at the helm of the creation of our modern technological constellation, and for that he will never be forgotten. He will be missed and he will be mourned, but he will live on through his many creations and contributions to our society.