Please welcome, my good friend, author Sandy Bush. Sandy is as much fun in person as she is in her writing.
It’s A Person Thing
By
Sandy Bush
For
Christmas, I bought myself a new computer. My old one, an Apple Mac Book, circa
2008 ran slower with each passing day. decided to make the switch to the dark
side and buy something using Windows 10. Best Buy helped me with my purchase,
talked my husband and I into the extra year of unlimited support from the Geek
Squad, and transferred the stuff from my Mac to my new Lenovo Yoga.
When
I picked up my computer, during the busy Christmas season, the store was
crowded, and the line to speak with the Geek Squad twisted all the way to the
greeter desk at the front of the store. The young man (i.e. kid) who completed
our transaction, rapidly ran through the basics of operating my new computer.
Confident I could manage and figure it out, we left after a few minutes,
relieved to know the Geek Squad could rescue me whenever I needed help.
Christmas
chaos left little time for learning to operate my new computer. I loved it, but
it was a different operating system than I was used to. Even simple tasks
required me to rethink everything. Frustrated and challenged, I wanted to
figure things out on my own.
Fast
forward to March, and I continued to putz and putter on my new machine. I grew
more anxious, having made little progress. A few times I called the Geek Squad
800 number for help, and they did. They remoted into my machine and helped me
access my photos—oddly in a billion small folders—and explained how to navigate
through a few problems. But they’re busy people. They’ve got tons of other baby
boomers to talk off the ledge.
After
three months, I admitted I needed professional help and booked an appointment
at the store with the Geek Squad. I arrived armed with my list of questions for
the man- child who assisted me. He barely looked old enough to drive or shave
and radiated an aura of boredom and disgust. For about twenty minutes, Geek
Squad Boy begrudgingly helped me, anxious to be rid of me and my middle-aged
questions. He lectured and shamed me to overcome my fears.
“You can’t be afraid to use it. There isn’t
anything you can do that we can’t help you fix, unless you drop it…” During his
rant, I made eye contact with an elderly woman who waited in line for help. She
smiled at me, understanding my embarrassment.
“Honestly,
I think it’s a generational thing,” I said.
“No,”
said the boy computer guru, “It’s a person thing.”
I
felt my face grow red. I glanced over at my new friend in line. “I agree with
her,” she said.
I
zipped up my computer case and walked away, smiling and giving a silent thumbs
up to the lady who’d come to my rescue. Maybe it is a person thing.
A graduate of The Pennsylvania
State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, Arts and Sciences
and a Minor in English, Sandy has a background in Federal, State and County
Government.
Her first novel, Money Man was published January 2018 (Year
of the Book Press). She has published articles in the Pennsylvania School Board
Association’s magazine The Bulletin, online
magazine Keystone Edge, and has worked
in advertising, and museum script writing (Oil Heritage Museum, Titusville,
PA).
Sandy, a freelance writer, is
completing her second novel. She is serving her second term on the Pennwriters
Board of Directors as the Area 5 Representative. She and her husband Todd are
the parents of two daughters and one grumpy cat.
Can you empathize with Sandy's visit to the Geek squad? Do you think we approach tech in certain ways because of who we are or what generation we are?
