The first time I remember seeing an Apple computer was when I was in high school in the early 90s. They were in the graphic design department at a local university. I remember thinking, “I’ll need to learn how to use one of those some day.” Little did I know that it would become my every day.

When I was a flight attendant, over 10 years ago, my mom bought an iMac – the one with the round footprint and the monitor that swivels in all directions. She bought it because it looked cool, and, of course, she bought the “floor model” with all the best of everything in it. Since she was older, though, she found it hard to use. She was used to a PC. So, the really cool looking iMac just sat there.

One day, I took a trip home and began playing on this really cool iMac. I didn’t think twice about how to use. I loved all of the apps. I loved the photo gallery. I loved that I could make movies and DVDs. My Mom loved that I loved it. So, she asked, “Do you want to take the really cool iMac home with you? Oh, and it came with this thing called an iPod. It’s for music.” It was an offer I was pleasantly stunned by, but definitely not one which I could refuse.

I began classes for web graphic design at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. I loaded that year’s Adobe Creative Suite for web designers on to the iMac. I found every CD I owned, added the songs to iTunes and then synced them to the first generation iPod. I remember sitting on my jump seat at the back of a 737-400 listening to my music, and other flight attendants would ask me, “What’s that?” It’s an iPod. Little did they know how something so small would influence their every day.

Ten years later, I woke up this morning, checked Facebook, Twitter, and the weather on my iPhone, grabbed my iPad as I ran out the door, and logged into my .Mac account to write this email to send to rememberingsteve@apple.com.

I have made numerous DVD slideshows and movies with iDVD, edited videos with iMovie, stored thousands of memories with iPhoto, and listened to a thousand or more songs with iTunes. I have also become a strong web graphic designer, and I have the career that I thought I would have when I first remember seeing an Apple computer 20 years ago.

Thank you, Steve, and the family at Apple. There is no technical metric to measure the influence you have had on my life.

Forever Inspired,
~Dianna Williams