On Wednesday, October 5, 2011 the world lost a visionary. That visionary’s name was, Steven P. Jobs. For me the moment I found out that Jobs was dead is a moment I will never forget. I had just gotten back to the DePaul CSS/ACM office where I was hanging out with friends while working on homework after running out to grab some food and I looked at the screen of my Macbook Air on which I had Facebook open. The top 5 status updates in my Feed were from friends and news sites and all said, “Steve Jobs is dead.” Three of these statuses were from news sites and none of the three said, “Breaking News” in front of the headline so my initial reaction was that it was all a hoax but I immediately went to Apple.com to see if there was anything over there on the news and sure enough there was a picture of Steve that linked to a page with this statement from Apple CEO Tim Cook that read:

 

 

I have two short anecdotes that I wanted to share as I continue to reflect on the loss of someone who made me believe I was not making a mistake in what I wanted to do with my life even though I never had the chance to meet him.

Let me explain:
Back at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year I was considering a switch to being a business major until not one but two of my friends showed me Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement speech.

Upon seeing this speech the second time I decided to talk with my Advisors at DePaul and find something that did not require me to take 5 to 6 different math classes because I really do not have a mind for advanced math topics and Computer Science uses math to teach the concepts. One of my advisors asked me the following question, “What do you want to do with your Computer Science degree once you graduate?” I replied, “I want to do website management and development.” At the time, the degree that best fit the description of what I said I wanted to do was Human Computer Interaction. It has since been renamed to Interactive Media. Everyone always tells you to follow your heart, it is how they say it that matters in the end because it was not until seeing this speech that I realized I loved technology as much as I do.

 

The second anecdote I want to share is about timing. In an ironic turn of events, after hearing the news Wednesday night, I ended up staying with by a friends place and wound up forgetting my MacBook Air charger by their place Thursday morning and since they were at work this meant I had to figure out a solution. My solution in the end was to go buy a new charger that I would return after being able to get mine back from my friend a within a few days. As I approached the North Avenue Apple Store I noticed a memorial setup outside and stopped to take in the scene and eventually take a picture. Then, as I turned from the memorial to walk into the store I was stopped by a Wall Street Journal reporter who asked me if I had any thoughts on the passing of Steve Jobs. I initially replied, “I have not had much time to really reflect on the loss.” Then about thirty seconds later I replied, “I feel like I lost an uncle I never met, he’s the one person who inspired me the most in what I’m doing.” Though I probably should not be too surprised, I was quoted in an article on WSJ.com discussing the reaction to Jobs’ passing.

At the Apple store in Chicago, sticky notes listing Steve Jobs’s creations were stuck to the store’s glass wall on Thursday. Just below, two candles burned aside three bouquets of flowers. One apple sat on a note that read, “To the craziest of them all.”

Davood Dehnavifar, a senior at nearby DePaul University, paused for a moment and took in the scene, before reaching to his pocket for his iPhone 4 and snapping a photo.

“I feel like I lost an uncle I never met,” said Mr. Dehnavifar, 23, an interactive media major who owns three Apple devices. “He’s the one person who inspired me the most in what I’m doing.”

Read more:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204294504576613721276393938.html#ixzz1aLkJe3Wz

For now I leave you with, this, one of my favorite quotes from his 2005 Standford Commencement speech: