I remember listening to my iPod mini on the bus to junior high every morning, sharing white Apple earbuds with my friend Joe. I remember typing my very first paper for college on my new Macbook Pro. I remember beating my friend's high score in Fruit Ninja on her iPhone during lunch at Octagon Cafe.
I'm not sure I remember exactly when I first started associating the Apple brand with Steve Jobs, but something inside me has always known that this is the man responsible for making my life better. He originally envisioned a computer that everyone could use, and since then he has even convinced my grandma to purchase an iPad.
A lot has been said in the week following the death of Apple's former CEO and the original creator of Pixar. Jobs was one of the greatest thinkers in the world and to lose such a powerful figure affected everyone.
As Ian Schafer (@ischafer), CEO of the interactive marketing agency Deep Focus, mentioned on Twitter, "This must be what it was like to lose Walt Disney."
Our college-aged generation never had the man that was Walt Disney; we had Jobs. He, like everyone, was not perfect, but his inventions and ideas will resonate with us forever. And while his technology was the most beautiful in the world, making us appreciate life in different ways, the movies he brought to fruition grew up with us as well. Without Jobs, Pixar might very well never have made it. I was three when Toy Story came out and years later, I'd find myself quoting the movie in my junior high graduation speech. The long-awaited third movie featured Andy going away for college, and was released the same summer I was packing my bags to leave for Elon.
These days you'd be hard-pressed to look around any Elon classroom and not see at least one Macbook or iPhone in use. According to Campus Technology, 50 percent of the student body uses Macs. The School of Communications — rich with video editors and audiophiles — has just one available for general student use, a decrepit Windows PC and I've never had to wait to use it.
College students have found new ways of interacting with the world courtesy of Apple. From FaceTime sessions with family members back home to creating this very newspaper every week, Jobs created inventions that seamlessly integrated technology into everyday life. Apple has never made a product convoluted. It has been intuitive and it has made sense. Can you believe there was a time when you couldn't just fling birds across the screen with a flick of a finger?
I'll admit I cried when I heard Jobs died. Technology is probably a bigger part of my life than most and yet I don't know if I ever gave Jobs the credit he deserved. Without him, I wouldn't have my job at The Pendulum as online editor-in-chief. Every week, our online team gets to create multimedia to share with readers on a variety of platforms. We can now communicate with larger audiences in new ways and share this information in real-time. And I don't think we would have done it without that push from Jobs.
I'll also admit I cried during the final scene of Toy Story 3. Steve Jobs was a storyteller himself, one of the best there was, and he believed in the stories that Pixar could tell. Without him, I would not have grown up with some of the most beautiful stories my heart could bear. And I know it's not just me.
Jobs didn't just change the world; he defined our generation.
Thank you, Steve. You made us think differently. You took us to infinity and beyond.