One year ago today I was in Fiji. I had been out snorkeling with sharks, sea snakes, and fish. I had been on a boat following a pod of dolphins. I was heading to shore when my mobile phone beeped with a message. I didn't look at it because I rarely get texts when I'm traveling, and usually when I do get a text it's bad news.
Eventually I looked. It was a text from my brother. Despite the fact that I had prepared myself for something less than good, I was completely unprepared for what I saw...
Steve Jobs was gone.
And because of the time difference, I was hearing the news while in the future and half a world away.
It would have been nice if this cheat in time and space would have lessened the blow, but here I am a year later and it still hurts. One of the people I most admire on this earth and whose work has had a huge impact on my life isn't around anymore.
There's never going to be "just one more thing" ever again... and some days it's more than I can take.
Flowers left at the Sydney Apple Store.
Maybe next year will be easier. But today I can't imagine that there's any amount of time and space that will make me feel better about waking up and remembering that Steve Jobs is no longer here.
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This made me tear up a little. It’s such a heartfelt post.
I got emotional at not only visiting Apple.com yesterday, but thinking about hearing the news about Steve last year. It was tough. This is a guy who I’ve followed since the introduction of the Apple II and how much I bought into the Macintosh in 1985. I’ve never looked back and have always been glad that Steve’s vision in many products (even the Newton, which I used for many years) that have changed how I work in the digital world.
His love of industrial design (where “technology and liberal arts intersect”) has changed the prism through which I see life – so much so that it’s almost a burden – every car I sit in, every building I enter, every cash register I see, etc., etc., etc., all leave me wanting and seeing how these things could just be, well, a bit… better.