Taking a Bite off the Apple

I grew up a "PC." Literally! My father was a computer genius who worked with computers for a living. By the age of 2, I had my own system. When people say they've had a PC since they were 10 years old, they have nothing on me. My dad set its beautiful, at the time, DOS interface up with game titles corresponding to letters on the keyboard, which I would type in to take me to my favorite educational games. "Word Munchers," "Number Munchers," "Spellicopter"... these were all part of daily life. As I grew older, I excelled at more refined titles, like "Where in the World (USA, Universe, you name it) is Carmen San Diego."

I went to one of the cool schools in the early 90's that had computer class for youngsters. This is where I first learned what an "Apple" was. All I can say is, apart from the logo, these computers were a far cry from the fancy Apple products of today. I will admit, however, these Apple computers had one particularly outstanding feature: The Flying Toaster screen saver.

Fast forward to high school. My best friend and her family all had Macs. Quite frankly, I didn't get it. They almost seemed like dumbed-down PCs to me. Meanwhile, I was gliding along on my PC. I remember feeling so cool when I personalized my PC to be exactly what I wanted. Come on, you know that picking your own desktop background was, at first, a *big deal*.

College came along. My freshman year, I received a brand new laptop. I loved this computer for a long time. It stuck with me through papers, social crises discussed on AOL Instant Messenger, and the invention of Facebook. Then, something changed...

I changed majors. I was now in Communications. My first class in the "Mac lab" was a little shocking. "You mean to tell me that all my programs live in this little guy whose face is cut in two (the Finder)?" Very quickly, however, I felt at peace with the Mac. It just seemed so "happy" that everything I needed was in the dock. I think a main turning point was when I discovered that I could pick an object up..... drag it... and drop it!

I tried to cheat the system. I must've spent weeks trying to turn my laptop into a Mac. I often scoured the Internet for new articles on the subject. I downloaded RocketDock, which was a great way to get my dock-obsession fix, but it still wasn't the same. On graphics programs especially, I craved my precious "drag and drop."

I took the plunge. No, I didn't throw my PC out the window and flee to the Apple Store (if only we had one in my city). Eventually, my laptop snapped. The screen was actually falling off. I took my last semester of student discount eligibility and set out to purchase a Macbook Pro. It was ordered online and eventually wound up at my doorstep. With my dad watching, I turned it on. A galaxy filled with purples and pinks (the intro video) welcomed me in different languages.
It was beautiful!

A little more than a year later, I'm still happy with my Macbook Pro. I've been proclaimed a Mac-snob and, quite frankly, I'm okay with that! Will I ever step away from my Mac? I know that technology grows leaps and bounds over a short period of time, so I'm not ruling it out. However, at this rate, I'm stickin' by my Mac's side for a very, very long time. I grew up a "PC", but now I can officially say, "I'm a Mac."