A Moment of Irony

Wednesday's class was a bit strange.

When Steve Jobs passed away I was in Web Design class. A dude to the left of me announced it to everyone in my corner of the class. The news was 7 minutes old so the world had just found out.

I was shocked for a second. We shared a few words about it, the dude and I. We knew that Jobs had been sick for many years. We knew he resigned from his position at Apple. I didn't think for a minute he was going to pass away. Yeah, we shared a few words but then we went back to work. I directed my attention back to Dreamweaver and prepared to show off my Mood Board to the class instructor.

But, then something weird set in. It was when I was trying to figure out how to use the mouse. I wanted to split the screens like I always do with my MacBook Pro, but I didn't know how and it frustrated the crap out of me. I looked around the room to, perhaps, steal a peak at how someone else did it. A flick of the wrist? Those awkward side buttons? And, that's when it hit me.

I was sitting in a room full of iMac computers. People were doodling on their iPhones. A couple of people were using MacBook's. My iPod was sitting in my breast pocket paused on a Janelle Monae track. The whole room was filled with Apple products and I had just found out that the guy who invented them, these life altering devices, had just passed away.

Getting "back to work" just didn't feel cool anymore, so I stopped and smiled. It was awkward. I had no idea why until I read this earlier today:

The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.
- Barack Obama

That kind of moment is something that will happen once maybe twice in a person's lifetime? I was experiencing history. I was living irony. I smiled to soak it all in.