Moving On

As I've previously mentioned, we Americans are officially in "back to school/can't wait for football season to start" mode. Even though this is the second year in a row that I won't be going to school it still seems like it was only yesterday that I was an awkward, angst ridden 18-year-old getting ready to go to college. Back then I was both a little nervous about the next chapter of my life as well as a little excited about the prospect of a four year beer flowing free for all.

A major part of getting ready for college for me was purchasing a computer. Don't ask me why, but for whatever reason back in 2004 I had my mind dead set on a desktop. Maybe it was because I felt a certain level of comfort after using them my entire life. Or maybe it was because I didn't think I'd be able to adjust to computing without a mouse. Or maybe it was because my 3 older brothers had all gotten a desktop when they were in my shoes. I don't know, but a desktop is what I wanted. With that choice already made I went online and built the computer that would get me through my college years. I picked all the cool features that I wanted, grabbed my dad's credit card, and had it shipped to my house.

As you can imagine, I was thrilled when my new computer finally arrived. With help from my brother, I immediately began putting everything together. A few minutes in I noticed something was very wrong. Even though I was convinced that I had ordered a 17inch flat screen monitor, Dell shipped me something that looked more like this. I was appalled. There was no way I could show up to college with that monstrosity. Thankfully a hundred bucks and a few weeks later my problem was resolved. Just in time for my college debut.

When I showed up on that first day I was happy to see that my cousin and roommate also decided to go the desktop route. Little did we know that we were in the overwhelming minority among our classmates. I mean, who would have guessed that laptops would really come into their own in the mid '00's? Also, before I continue, am I the only one that consistently forgets that the proper term is laptops and not labtops? Just me? Ok, whatever.

Outside of being forced to use Word Perfect because I failed to fit my computer with Microsoft Office, my first two years of college went by fine, computer wise. I lived in a dorm both my freshman and sophomore years, so my desktop was hardly a hinderence.

Things changed during my last two years as an undergrad. For example, my cousin and I were in a class together senior year that was essentially a semester long group project. Group project necessitate group meetings. And group meetings usually necessitate laptops. Therefore if the meeting wasn't at our house, we couldn't exactly roll our desktops over and help out. This became a running joke throughout the semester, but we didn't really care because without our computers we didn't have to do much work on the project.

Now at the beginning of this year, my old trusty desktop started to rapidly decline in performance. I'd turn it on and before it would start up a blue screen would appear and I'd have to hold the power button and try it again. After a while I started to get more and more frustrated with the machine so I began looking for a new computer (a laptop). I had many discussions with my old roommate and computer geek Matty K about what specifications I should get. I didn't really follow much of the computer jargon, so I just had the K Man do all the work and then I entered my credit card information and bought the thing.

I got my new computer in late June and it was great. I loved everything about it. From the portability to the speed of the processor, it was everything that I had hoped for. Then all of a sudden one day last week Windows wouldn't start. I must have restarted it and tried the repair start up function about 15 times, but I still got nothing. Back in college the old joke whenever someone had computer problems was, "It's probably all that porn you have on there," but let the record show that my new computer had yet to see a naked body (except of course for the Erin Andrews video).

With nowhere else to turn, I brought my new computer to the Geek Squad at my local Best Buy. After an hour and a half of tests the geeks gave up. Unable to help me, they referred me to Dell. I spent a solid hour on the phone trying to troubleshoot with a man in India. He instructed me to run a series of tests (probably the same tests the Geek Squad tried) and then to literally use a screwdriver and take the machine apart. Finally he decided that my hard drive, which again, was no more than six weeks old, was shot. Dell sent me a new one, but I lost all of my files and folders.

Needless to say, in the 4-5 days I was without my new computer I dusted off my old relic of a machine and suffered through blue screens, waited for pages to load, etc. Although using my old clunker tested my patience, it was a welcome trip down memory lane. I read my old documents, looked through my old pictures, and browsed my old favorites. It was almost like a last hurrah, if you will. My desktop had gotten me this far, but it was time to go in a new direction. I had to move on and take the next step.

We all deal with the fact that we are getting older in different ways. It's something we don't like thinking about, but certain events (usually birthdays, anniversaries, and New Year's Eve) remind us that time is, in fact, surging ahead. Evidently for me, one of those events is getting a new computer. Now that I have my new computer back I think I've finally accepted the fact that I'm no longer a college student and I have transitioned into the next chapter of my life. Too sappy? Probably, but I'm ok with it.