I have to admit, as reluctant as I am to do so, I have been a PC for most of my life.
I learned to right-click and explore the world wide web through Windows. I honed my skills in Microsoft Office. Eventually, I advanced to designing PowerPoint presentations and creating fictitious budgets in Excel—all while playing my collection of stereotypically preteen music with Windows Media Player.
In high school, I met my first Macintosh, or “Mac,” as they say. Soon I got my first Apple product, the original iPod mini, and tackled iTunes. I learned to sync my music to the device, create playlists using Genius and bought “Untouched” by The Veronicas from the iTunes Store. But it wasn’t until my senior year that Mac and I got to know each other while working on my high school’s yearbook. I quickly fell in love with its pearly white keys and sleek design. We regularly went on Safaris and took photo organization to the next level with iPhoto. It was a whole new world of technological excitement, and the dock was my magic carpet, taking me to new heights of design and aesthetics with programs like Photoshop and InDesign. I felt as though I was gravitating away from my Windows PC roots in favor of an alternative operating system I had only just met.
As I had grown accustomed to a Mac lifestyle, I faced a truly first-world dilemma when it came time for me to pick out a laptop for college. I spent my most formative years using a PC, and although the Mac was intriguing and mesmerizing, I wasn’t confident I could make the transition to college while making the transition to Mac at the same time. But the decision to “enter” my freshman year with a PC instead of a Mac is one that I would gladly “delete” from my life’s search history.
I began noticing problems with my Dell Inspiron as soon as I arrived at my first lecture. In my first class, there were no other PCs in the room. This realization was followed by confusion, self-loathing and sheer panic at the thought that I had failed to miss the “Macs only” policy in the syllabus. From then on, I felt like I was the only PC living in a world of Macs. But I continued to lead my alt-ernative lifestyle. Then, I started receiving blue screen of death threats from my PC, and by the end of my freshman year I was on first-name basis with Scott from the Memorial Union DoIT Help Desk.
Now, one year and two hard drives later, I am closing all the windows and shutting down my PC for good. I weighed the appearance costs and social benefits, factored in my intended profession and decided it was time for me to get on the Mac-wagon. After several trips to the DoIT Tech Store and a few frantic phone calls to my dad, I purchased a 13-inch MacBook Pro. It was surprisingly easy to set up. Apart from the 25 painfully long minutes of mediocre waiting music while waiting to talk to someone from Office Support, I’ve had few problems transitioning to life as a Mac.
My MacBook Pro is faster, lighter and more intuitive. It’s more compatible with my devices and serves my needs as a journalism student. Although I’ve spent the majority of my life as a PC, I think it’s safe to say this PC girl has gone Mac, and she’s not going back.
Have you gone Mac? Would you ever go back? Tell Sarah about it and email seolson5@wisc.edu.
