Narrative Essay about My Interest in Technology

Growing up in the timeframe that I have, I have been exposed to new technology almost my entire life. I have seen it develop from simple devices to share information on, to that of which we now use as our modern form of both entertainment and communication. As I grew older, I gained a huge passion for electronics, because they always seemed to interest me. I love the idea that through code, it allows hardware we see every day to operate to get even the most simple of all tasks done. I dreamed that one day I would be able to accomplish something like that as well.

I admit that I am very fortunate to grow up the way I did with all the technology I had access to. By first grade, I received my very first iPod touch for Christmas. I remember thinking that it was the coolest thing ever! I could listen to music on it, watch YouTube, play Minecraft, and do just about anything. I remember the front was dark black, but the back was shiny silver. By roughly 3rd grade, I had my very first laptop. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was an HP Pavilion with Windows 8 on it. It was not the fastest laptop in the world, but it worked for what I wanted to do. The laptop was very thin, had a matte black frame, and even had its own touchscreen! With my devices, I would always get overly excited when new updates came out for iOS or Windows. I would always be the first in my family to install them and find out all the cool new features. 

My love for technology only continued to grow as I got even older. I remember one specific story growing up that I still reference back to even today. One night, my parents were having problems connecting to our WI-FI on their laptop. After struggling with it for quite some time, my dad and mom both got up and left the room. While they were gone, I took my opportunity to try and fix the problem. I hopped on their laptop and got to work. I started crunching away on the keys. It really was an easy fix, at least, that is what I thought at the time. I sat there for only a short amount of time before my mom and dad walked back into the room, and my dad said something along the lines of, “Chayse, get off the laptop!”. I did as he said, however, I replied with, “It’s working again.” I remember both of them being shocked. “How could he have figured that out?”

When I was finally starting to reach an age where I could more thoroughly comprehend computers, I became more interested in learning more about them passed my own experience. It had always been difficult for me to truly learn anything revolving around technology, as no one close to me had shared the same enthusiasm as I did. Early on, most of my knowledge came from experience and self-teaching. I would simply mess around with all the features myself; pressing down on all the random buttons and observing. That all changed when I started to watch random YouTube videos about computers, whether it was about the operating system, hardware, specific features, etc. I found many things interesting, but through this, a dream I developed was building my own PC. For many years I used a laptop. Which was fine and all, but with the laptop I had, I was limited. The hard drive was horribly slow, the processor could barely pass to run google chrome out of all things, and overall, I was ready to get something better.

In June of 2018, I bought my very first, well-running gaming pc. The thing was a beast. I remember being so proud of myself for taking the time to save my money to get one. I remember what it felt like to play all the games I had not been able to on my PC, until that moment. The case was massive and lit up with a bunch of LEDs. The moment was great, however, I still had a much larger goal in mind. I kept working harder each day, hoping that one day I could achieve that goal.

As time progressed, and my hardware aged, I knew it was time that I finally made a change within my PC. I decided that I would start off small. I would simply change out a specific part here and there, and see what I can do. The first thing I changed was the motherboard, roughly a year after I got my pc. I had my dad’s help to get screws undone, but I did all the technical stuff. After roughly an hour or two, it was done. I successfully changed the motherboard, and it worked! Despite running into spidery cables, and stripping a few screws, I think it went pretty well. I remember being so proud of myself for doing it too! My dad was probably even more impressed than I was at myself. He still brings up the fact that all he pretty much did was hold the flashlight, 

while I switched around cables he did not even know existed. 

It was around the same time that my friends started to ask me for help with their computers. I love when people ask me for help with their computers, phones, or any of their devices, however, it is not something that happens super often. It makes me feel good knowing that they believe I am smart with that stuff. I love getting to set up my own personal things, but helping other people is honestly so much better. I get to do something I enjoy, and I get to help someone else while doing it. It is a win-win. One time, my neighbor across the street asked me for help to swap out his graphics card inside his computer. No way would I pass up this golden opportunity! It only took a short amount of time to switch around, but the work got done, and it felt rewarding in the end knowing that I got to help someone. 

After practicing my skills by helping my friends, and getting hands-on learning with my stuff, I decided it was time. I asked my parents for new computer parts for Christmas. One of the parts I asked for was a new computer case. This would require me to take apart and build my entire computer from scratch. I was so excited! When Christmas came, I got the case! I remember thinking of how awesome it was going to be to finally build my own computer.

When Christmas was over, and I had time to change out my computer, I got to work. I tore everything out of my PC and stripped the entire thing. I unplugged every single cable, unscrewed all the screws, and carefully set it all outside the case. I began by taking out the chunky, heavy graphics card, then the processor fan and all the messy thermal paste along with it, the motherboard, the power supply, the memory, and finally, the storage. I got them all out, and I worked on putting them back together. I remember running into slight complications, like a part not fitting correctly, or a screw not turning, but after getting through those slight problems, everything was coming together.

By the end of that day, I had gotten the entire thing put back together, and it was time for the moment of truth. It did not matter how well I got everything screwed back in, or how pretty it looked, it was if the PC would turn on. I plugged the pc back into the wall, plugged in the monitor, and hit the power button. The white LED lit up the button, and the case LEDs along with it. Each light on the PC slowly came on, one by one. After going through the outstandingly fast boot process, it worked! I had built my own PC from scratch. All the countless hours I spent learning how to do it myself worked. Never once did I receive any instruction from any person physically in front of me. Every piece of information I got was from the internet.

To this day, building my computer has to be one of the proudest moments of my life. Since then, I have been asked by some other friends to change out a part here and there, fix a technical problem, or even in school, I will fix a classmate’s Chromebook. I really wish I would be asked for help even more often.  Unfortunately, being 15, I do not get a lot of people willing to accept a 15-year-old to help them. If there is anything that I have taken from this, that would be that it is possible to do just about anything, as long as you set your mind to it. So until then, I will just keep doing what I am doing, and in school, I will still be that one guy that somehow knows how to fix random Chromebook problems. Just make sure not to tell my school’s tech department.