FIRST DAY OF CLASS

By Sharyn A White

Wow, I couldn’t believe it was actually here! My very first day in a real journalism class! I had been so excited for weeks, anticipating the glorious, creative words that would spew out of me once I had the proper training and a serious quest for straight A’s!

Smiling and eager, I sat down at the table and whoa, what was THIS? A huge screen, nearly as big as my bedroom TV!  I was impressed but wait, how do you turn this thing on?  I glanced to my right and a fellow student, sensing my distress, whispered,

“Just move your mouse”. Oh yeah, duh! I should have known that!

Trying to look at ease, I stared down at the screen. Where was my little world symbol with a Saturn-like ring around it?  Where was my taskbar? My  precious “start” button? Oh my gosh, I am totally completely LOST! This is NOT a PC, it’s a MAC!

I had never even SEEN one before. Oh no, oh jeez……oh CRAP!

Fumbling my way through the class, I tried hard to look like I knew what I was doing, then timidly explained to my teacher that I had never seen a Mac much less used one.  Calmly, she assured me I WOULD get the hang of it and eventually like it. Um, yeah, okay, I’ll do my best, Mrs. G.

It’s been just a couple of weeks now. I’m still struggling with learning it, but I stopped having nightmares about the little fox at the bottom.  I now know that a safari is NOT a trip to Africa.  And that little apple icon, well, it does not intimidate me anymore.

And I HAVE gained a new friend: my UNDO button!