I went through college without owning a computer. I knew they existed, of course, and in fact I was forced to use one, a Mac as it happens, to pass my first-year computer course…one of those DO-IT-OR-ELSE courses, otherwise I most certainly wouldn’t have gotten within a mile of a computer…

Even after I’d passed that required-but-much-hated computer course, I stubbornly ignored computers and continued to use my old typewriter…as well as countless bottles of correction fluid, = a mysterious white chemical gunk called white-out, I think. My term papers were always dotted with messy white blobs. I didn’t care…

Then, when I was in my senior year at Harvard, I was offered the chance to buy a Mac at a big student discount. I went to have a look at one and thought it was kind of cute. Remember, we’re not talking fancy schmancy super computers here. No, this was one of the first Macs ever produced, one of those heavy, boxy desktop Macs with a small black&white screen. Still, I thought, “why not?” So I bought my first computer. But I didn’t even open the box until the fall after I’d graduated. 🙂 In the beginning I used it mostly to play silly games but then, later on, I also taught myself how to touch type…which turned out to be verrrry useful…

By the time I began grad school, I was a fast typist who could do a certain amount of research online (though what I knew then was NOTHING compared to what I know now 😉 )…By then I had replaced my desktop Mac with a Mac Portable, the first (?) Apple laptop…Hah. That thing was so heavy I could barely lift it, but I loved it…

Ah…memories…

I remained a Mac devotee until I met Stefano who convinced me to change over to the PC world. While I resisted the change at first, I have to admit that I now love my PC, the one I have at home in Italy…

But today, the day after Steve Jobs died, I’m glad to be using my mother’s Mac. It’s like travelling back in time…