“Just arrived.”
As soon as I got that text and the accompanying photo, I could barely wait to go home.
Rushing home from a brief after-work meeting, I scooted onto a kitchen table seat, and carefully unwrapped the packaging to reveal a slim, shining, rose-gold object smaller than a notebook.
My new laptop. As my old computer had slowly deteriorated I’d been counting days until I could spend my tax refund on a replacement.
Now, logging in for the first time, I smiled in delight at the joy of a laptop that runs silently.
And took a moment to acknowledge how lucky—or blessed, if you will—I’ve been.
I’ve had some form of functional computer for about as long as I can remember and my former laptop had served me well.
Originally from my university, when they surplused it, that hunk of metal had gotten me through multiple years of study before its poor interior cooling fans gave up.
Once free to rage as hotly as it liked, the little heat demon powering its calculating mind had promptly melted its own innards.
My dad performed a surgery, transplanting its heart—the contents of its hard drive—into another laptop’s body so that I’d be able to finish school without buying another one.
From then on out, I was constantly checking the temperature gauge on my screen, adjusting noisy fan speeds, and ignoring the constant whirring and crackling.
Still, I managed to finish school before age made it obsolete. Unable to update software anymore, the computer drifted slowly and peacefully toward its eternal rest.
Meanwhile, I impatiently waited for my tax refund from last year—2020—to deposit into my account, so I could reincarnate the spirit of my old machine.
It showed up less than a week before 2021 taxes were due.
I hardly cared, though—a new laptop was coming my way at long last.
Honestly, my new computer is not the fanciest of machines— refurbished, not new; small screen, not large. So my excitement grows not from having the latest greatest model, but from what I can do with it.
These days, that little machine houses so much of my life. My relaxation is its YouTube and DisneyPlus accounts, my work, all saved in its Google Drive; even my budget calculations are saved online.
Having a new laptop feels like a missing part of my life has returned.
At the same time, I’m reminded that access to this technology makes me deeply privileged, especially as ever increasing online requirements for work and school leaves behind families who can’t afford devices or internet.
My own experiences dealing with a barely functional computer pushed me to consider what we can do to make technology accessible for everyone and I’m glad to see school districts begin rising to this challenge by providing electronic resources such as ipads to students.
Technology is much more than a pretty rose gold laptop.
It’s a lifeline.