I too, am amazed on how well my affliction with computers turned out. I can confidently say I am a computer literate. I won't dare call myself an expert, we'll reserve that to the IT people that studied and made a living out of working with computers.
I can still remember, when I was in elementary, our small school had purchased a PC for the students' use. But somehow, I already gone to 1st year high school and transferred out of that school, I never sat or even glimpsed at that PC.
High School, it was in my third year, that the coed school that I transferred to, offered a computer subject. It is a bigger school, it can afford to provide a PC to two students at a time. Wow major improvement huh! We were taught Lotus 1-2-3 (we can say it was Excel's ancestor), word processing (I forgot the name of the program) and Basic Programming. Everything was pretty simple then. No elaborate graphics. The screen is black and the characters were the ones lighted, unlike that of today. When you turn on the computer, you type commands to get to the program that you need. No mouse yet! I was really enjoying that class until.... ok brief history, no heavy duty hard drives and CDs then, we were using Floppy disks and micro disks. So what happened that got me scared of computers was when one fateful class, I was assigned to collect the floppy disks from each student and to keep them in the classroom cabinet. But the clumsy teen that I was back then (well I guess I'm still clumsy but definitely not a teen anymore, huhu) I tripped on one of the computer cords and the disks came flying out of my hands. My teacher, to my horror, chided me in front of the class and blamed me if the disks got broken and all of the class' works gets ruined it will be ALL my fault! Of course back then, when you're a kid learning something foreign to you, the teacher's words were law and that they know everything. When I got home that day, I cried my eyes out! I couldn't cry right there and then. My crush was watching, it was soooo embarrassing! I prayed and prayed those stupid disks were ok. They were made of hard plastic but duh, then I didn't know that they were not that sensitive. The next day of course my fears were allayed because they're still working fine. Our files didn't got erased or anything. Now thinking back, it was pretty funny what happened, but of course the young Luisa is now apprehensive when it comes to computers.
It was 4 years after that when my family got our very first computer. After that 3rd year High School computer class I never had any computer training again. I learned the ropes with the help of our first computer at home. Trial and error. This time, computers were more user friendly with the emergence of the Windows OS. Today the latest version of Windows is Vista right? Well my first encounter with Windows is...... Windows 3.0! Imagine! How old! I owe a lot to Windows 3.0. Since I learned by myself and with a very early OS, by the time I got to 4th year college, where in my last semester of nursing school we have this computer literacy class that used Windows 98, the class was a breeze! Windows 98 was already very user friendly, meaning it's very easy to use. We can say I'm old schooled with the 3.0, I already know how to work my way around the newer programs! It's like your McGyver-ing it. I think you guys got my point.
When I got to the US, when I was already able, I bought my first laptop. I liked it very much. This got the ball rolling. I got fascinated with what the modern PC could do. And with all the information you could get over the net, the possibilities were endless.
Then came the iPhone, my first ever Apple product. Well I guess, second, I got myself an iPod shuffle first. But then again, that was just an iPod. The iPhone is like a computer and internet in your pocket!. I've gotten more fascinated with tech stuff. Before I bought my digital camera and my TV, I've spent couple of hours, researching in the internet different specifications, models and prices for me to have an informed buy, and in the process, I gained a bit more knowledge about modern technology stuff. Thus my earning the title "Tech girl of Pedi ward" (I think it was my friend Manji that came up with the Tech-girl label since she adapted calling me Lui-girl, a pet name my friend Grace, christened me with).
Then, I fell in love!!! With the MacBook that I bought. I'm sooo impressed with the Mac that I wanted to get the MacPro, but I guess that's over indulgence already. It's kinda expensive, so that just have to live in my wish list for awhile. I'm still a PC person, you can't erase that. But I'm also a practicing Mac person now. Hehe.
My manager at work (present) asked me when we got the new computer charting at work if I had previous experience with computers at my previous job in the Philippines. I answered her with a flat "none." I used to work in a tertiary hospital in the Philippines but while I was working there, no computer charting yet. I am happy that I am able to grasp this new information about computers at work. Personally, it got the charting part of our job a lot easier. Some might disagree but I'll let them hold on to their own opinion.
So you can see, my history with computers go a long way. I even have this dream that I wish I could study programming on the side while practicing nursing. I'm not drifting away from nursing, I see it as a branching out, specially now that computers are working its way into the health care system. I wish I could build programs that could facilitate ease of work for both nurses and IT. I'll probably do it soon if opportunity knocks.
I would like to say or rather advise to my friends and colleagues that are apprehensive with computers. Change is hard, but we have a learning curve. If you ever get scared of the machine called the computer... always keep this in mind. "It's just a glorified calculator my friend!"
