At last, I got my laptop back. When I called home a couple of days ago, in an effort to come up with an alibi for not having called since two weeks ago, I told my mom that I was busy fixing my laptop. "Who fixed it?" she asked. "I did." "All by yourself?" Without seeing her face, I knew just what sort of expression she was wearing. Skepticism, surprise, and that mixture of amusement and sarcasm that only mothers could bare and suppress at the same time. From the end of the line, I could tell she was stifling a nasty laugh. "Hey, it’s not like I had to pry the laptop open with screwdrivers and stuff. The problem was with the soft— the problem was more on the INside." Sigh. Mothers.
So, as everything else, my suffering, too, came to an end. Of course I lost all the data in my laptop. But come to think of it, what have I lost really? Folders of pictures I barely opened after I had them downloaded from my camera? Music and videos I hadn’t had the chance to organize? No, I didn’t lose any research-related program or journal paper; I hardly did research at home. So far, I have yet to feel the need of looking at a particular picture or listening to a specific music, realize that it’s gone and feel sorry for its loss.
I guess I’m actually relieved that it happened. Maybe I’ve been wanting it to happen all along. It’s true, I’ve lost everything. But in the process, wasn’t I saved from going through all the trouble of organizing, backing up and filing? Would it have been worth it had I done those things before my laptop cracked up? Would it have made any difference with the way I feel right now?
Music, they’re available at the video and music rental shop nearby. Journal papers, I can always access them through my computer in the lab. Pictures, I have them all, along with the memories, vividly preserved and neatly organized in my mind.
Why, with a fresher, faster computer, I guess I should be celebrating right now!
Ordinary Thoughts of an Extraordinary Mind 