HashtagCountYourBlessings

Hey! Sorry to have been MIA for so long (I'm sure you noticed), but a month ago my dear, aged laptop died for good. The poor thing was literally wheezing and displaying a flashing question mark. Luckily for me, I have a father who works in resuscitating deceased computers. Even wheezing, fatally confused computers. So now (spoilers) I am happy to announce that after one month of an electronic dark age, I am posting from my old computer.

It wasn't an easy road, though. The Ecuadorian mail system is so corrupt you can't ship anything anywhere, and computers here are double the cost of computers purchased in the States. When my computer first displayed the dreaded question mark, I was sprawled on the floor (coincidentally, the only location in my bedroom that gets a signal also seems to be a favorite gathering spot for spiders––we've had many close encounters) and I was bawling. HOW CAN I LIVE WITHOUT A COMPUTER?!? The question initially had me baffled.

I'm teaching the Old Testament in Primary this year and, thankfully, it gave me some perspective: Job's family was squashed, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, Eglon was so obese that the scriptures record him as a "very fat man" (sure would love THAT to go down in history), Samson gets his eyes poked out and dies, Jonathan should've been king but his father is wicked and they both die, Prometheus gets his liver eaten out by an eagle every day for all eternity because he CAN'T die. I mean, these are real problems (well, except for Prometheus, who doesn't actually exist––lucky for him) and, upon contemplation, the plight of not having a computer for three months was belied in their light.

This is what we call "photo editing by hand." Classy, right?

I'm pretty lucky. Probably. For one thing, I will not go down in history being known as a "very fat man." I also have the afore-mentioned computer-resucitating father. He's amazing. He loaded a new OS onto a flash drive, mailed it to a friend in Utah who flew to Ecuador a few weeks later, FaceTimed to walk me through the entire process of rebooting my laptop, and has patiently been responding to all my messages throughout the past several days in which I bewail any new problem that arises.

Mainly that my computer has mechanical asthma. And sometimes crashes. And responds with the speed of a slug in the sun.

So, yeah, perhaps tomorrow I'll be posting about how my computer is dead, but the alleviation lies in the knowledge that I can take it. I can continue writing novels (I wrote a 5,000-word short story on my iPod like a boss. Then wore a wrist brace for a week. Also like a boss.) by hand, and planning school projects by hand and doing internet blogging by hand and, um, storing and editing photos by hand…

OKAY. Without a computer I can't do everything I want to do, even though they're righteous pursuits, but, just like the millions of people on this earth who have lived, loved, accomplished great things and died without ever seeing a computer, I know that I can utilize a little creativity, a little industry and a little gratitude, and get by––even thrive––without a laptop in front of me.

Just don't take my hot showers.