Without Steve Jobs and Apple I may have never met my wife
Like so many people, my reaction to the loss of Steve Jobs was a mix of denial, emotion, regret, and sorrow. Many people have also had a very different response wondering how I could care so much about someone knowing that I never met or even spoke to him. The answer is simple, I would never be where I am today or even have met my wife for that matter if Steve Jobs hadn’t been the person he was. It sounds extreme of course, but it goes further than the fact that I now do some iPhone development and work with mobile and video, etc, etc. It starts a lot earlier than that.
Way back when, I went into college without a clear vision of what I wanted to do with my life. I wasn’t sure if I was a business guy, a tech guy, a philosopher, or something else altogether. I had an old Mac LC under my arm and ended up in the campus computer store looking for some help and ended up getting a job. It also led me to apply to the Apple Student Rep program and then turned into a summer internship at Apple HQ. My experience working for Apple and the passion that I saw from the people there guided me into the computer world. It was more than the systems themselves, it was about vision. It was about connecting people and sharing information. I saw it as clearly a vision of the future and I wanted in and have never looked back.
Now onto for the part about my wife. My passion for Apple also led me into our school’s IT department. As the only Apple pro on a Windows “only” campus, I became a Resident Tech helping student’s with all their computer problems. One of the dorms I was assigned to also contained the room of my future wife. Lets just say I made a lot of trips over to that dorm to help other students and always seem to have an excuse to stop by her room to say hi. One thing led to another and 16 years later we are still together and have two amazing little boys.
To put it simply. Without Steve, there would be no Apple. Without Apple, I would have never gotten into computers. Without computers, I never would have been in that dorm and my wife and I probably never would have met. So thank you Apple and thank you Steve.
In the end it really shows how connected (in the non-tech sense) we all are to the people, products, and companies around us and Apple shaped my entire future from my family to my professional life. So there may be another visionary like him, there may be someone with his passion and creativity, but there will never be another Steve Jobs. I am happy to have lived to experience his vision, I but I am sad to know that my kids may never have that chance.
Thank you Steve, you will be missed more than you know.
