Computers are for geeks...

was the pronouncement of my junior year in high school. I remember our new three city combined high school boasting that they would be offering a computer class where students would learn to write code.

Several of us who were not overly excited about the combining of three local high schools into one simply thought that it was more of the administrative hype related to trying to get three separate student bodies to act as one.

Not only that, but who in their right mind wanted to stare at a boxy green screen and write computer code? Typing seemed to be the much wiser choice. You will always need to know how to type.

Fast forward fives times five plus a year reunions later (ack!) and computers have overtaken the world! Okay, not that extreme but computers are as much a part of my daily life as cleaning the kitchen. Which is a lot of my daily life. And at some point I realized that while I can operate my computer, I'm probably not utilizing all of its bells and whistles, also known as app-li-ca-tions like I could be.

The day before Black Friday, formerly known as Thanksgiving, now known as Grey Thursday, I convinced my dad to go stand in line at 5:30 a.m. at a PeachMac in Atlanta to try and buy a MacBook Air for me. I was going to be in S.C. where there wasn't a PeachMac store. He for the adventure and leverage of it agreed to be my buyer. Number twelve in line but number six for the magic ticket and voila! I was the proud new owner of a MacBook Air.

Six years previously I had made the switch from PC to Apple and knew I was not going back. Being from an all PC family though, my learning curve was disjointed and slow and full of errors. Stumbling through I depended on google and youtube to figure out several things and calls to my Mac loving friends for the rest.

With this new toy in hand, I signed up for the program that granted me 52 hours of computer instruction. Woo Hoo! A class a week so I could finally know what I was doing. So every weekend, I show up at the PeachMac with my computer in hand for one to one tutelage on the ins and outs of operating systems, software, and applications.

I'm there with the grandmas who were given iPads for Christmas by well meaning relatives who have no earthly idea how to turn the thing on let alone email or FaceTime or use a productivity app. But they know how to play solitaire, yes indeedy, they do.

Anyway, it's an eye-opening experience to have the computer tech half your age (at least) teach you how to make a movie with the video that your 14 year old shot with the camera you still don't know how to use. Humbling is only one word for it. Enlightening and energizing would be more words to use. The lesson being to me that you really are never too old to learn. I may forget some (a lot) of what he shows me, but my brain is working to acquire some new skills for 2013 which is not a bad thing.

Plus, that typing class? Well, obviously it paid off because you have to be able to type to blog.