Inspiration to be Better

Steve Jobs passed away last week.  I would have blogged sooner, but my life got taken over by a barrage of papers needing to be graded and lessons needing to be planned, etc., etc.

Anyway, now is as good a time as any to pay homage to a man who has, through his innovation and technology, kept my life running for the past ten years, at least.  I got my first computer in the 8th grade, and it was an Apple iMac that looked like this:

Old school, right?   To this day, I will never forget driving to the Apple store in Memphis to pick it out.  I was so excited! I also still have one of the original iPods.  You know, the one that felt like a brick in your hand and had a simple, black and white display.  You should've seen my face when Santa brought that to my house.  When I graduated from high school, I got a Macbook Pro that is still faithfully serving its purpose today.  I've replaced the hard drive, the battery, and the internal charging whatever-you-call-it (I'm no computer genius, here), and added more memory, but it's still getting the job done almost seven years later.  I'm currently typing this blog entry on the Macbook Air my parents gave me when I graduated college, and I'm checking my fantasy football score on my iPhone, which I don't think I could live without.  

Steve Jobs, you changed our world.  You have been a part of every educational milestone in my life thus far, and you keep me organized everyday.  But beyond all of that, you left the world with a calling, an inspiration.  Your life and accomplishments taught us to defy the odds.  Be bigger and better than anyone expects.  Be the big surprise.  In the days since Jobs died, I've read several quotes of his, but this is, by far, my favorite: 

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” 

I want to live by these words.  There's something to be said for paving your own way, and I want to see where it takes me. So thank you, Steve Jobs.  Thank you for changing our world, and thank you for making me want to change it, too.