Yes, I thought I’d be one of the millions to blog and write about what Steve Jobs has meant to me and my everyday life. But it’s just not me, it’s all of us. Was he the greatest technological innovator of our time? He definitely has my vote on that one. It was his vision and mission to humanize personal computing. He rewrote the rules of user experience design, hardware design and software design. He changed the music business and started an all out war between the wireless carriers.

We all have our own story of what Steve Jobs means to them and my personal story started when I was just nine years old.

I remember when my family got their first computer. It was 1992 and the best computer for their money at the time was a Tandy. [You can argue that fact if you'd like, but it was what we could afford at the time... And it wasn't cheap!] I remember that computer very well… I also remember that it really wasn’t user friendly. Remember DOS? Do you remember using an IBM computer for the first time and thinking “What in hell have I gotten myself into?” Back then I wasn’t doing too much with a computer besides playing games [educational of course!] and playing with the encyclopedia. I do not remember the “Internet” or AOL at all… That came a couple of years later…

This leads me to my family’s second computer… It was 1995… I was in 5th grade when my parent’s bought that Hewlitt Packard. I remember being in school and all I wanted to do was go home and play with the Encyclopedia Britannica CD-ROM. I thought that was the coolest thing EVER! I never thought I would have been so fascinated by looking up the word “heart” in that encyclopedia. But I truly was. I spent hours exploring what information that encyclopedia contained. I could have never imagined then of what was to come of personal computing… Did anyone? Anyone but Steve that is.

At this time, I really hadn’t been around or used an Apple or Mac computer. The reality was that they were too expensive for my family to have one. The other thing was that all I ever heard was “The real world doesn’t use Mac’s, they use IBM’s.” That was OK though because I thought I was the luckiest little girl with my HP and that Encyclopedia Britannica CD-ROM.

In 1996 I entered middle school, I was fortunate enough to go to a school [Bonny Eagle Middle School] that had received

The 1st computer ever built by Apple.

a huge grant that had allowed an addition to be built, three state of the art computer labs [filled with iMac's!], as well as a computer, phone and television in every single classroom. It was freaking fantastic!

I wanted to be in those computer labs as MUCH as possible. I really did! All of the other girls were more concerned with   who was “going out” with who [like that EVEN matters when you are twelve years old] and what they were going to wear during gym class now that they got to use a locker room a change outfits for class. There weren’t organized school sports until 7th grade, so for my first year of middle school I was a true first generation computer geek. I joined the Computer Club and spent everyday after school going to the computer lab. I honestly don’t even remember what we exactly we did, but I do remember using First Class Client. That was sooo amazing to me! It was what we now know as email, but to us it was a way to talk to each other without actually, verbally talking to each other. I’ll never forget that little red flag.

The possibility of what this technology was and could be was so incredibly fascinating to me. I can only wonder what those big tech titans of the 80′s and 90′s thought of it all as well. Guy Kawasaki, who was an Apple Evangelist back then explained it as like “being paid to go to work at Disneyland every day.” That means it had to be just as awesome as I always imagined it to be. And I think we all know that it really, really was.

The years went on, technology and the use of computers in my life increased, as it did with everyone. It wasn’t until I turned 21 that I had another “Oh WOW!” moment when it came to a product that Steve Jobs had created. Maybe it was because while I was growing up, so was Apple. The iPod was cool, but after dating a guy in high school that had a computer in the trunk of his car with an MP3 player, that he built and wired himself, it kinda took a little bit more for me to go “Oh wow, that’s cool!”

I’ll never forget the first time I saw and got to use an iPhone… I was absolutely blown away and all I could think and say was “That’s sooooo cool!”

“What was is that was so cool?” It was the design and the way it worked. And that is exactly what Mr. Jobs’ mission was… To create a great user experience.

My favorite quote from Steve Jobs, is this; “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference.”

Thank you Mr. Jobs. Thank you for thinking differently. You have most definitely left the biggest ding in the universe that I have seen thus far in my life. And to all those IBM lovers of the world… It seems to me that the real world DOES use Mac’s… Right?

If you could ask Mr. Jobs one question what would it be? For me, I’d ask… “Did your birth mother know that you never graduated from college?”