A Lesson Learned
Be attentive to all tasks
A terrible thing happened to me a while back. I inadvertently clicked a wrong command and deleted all the files on my new laptop. Frantic efforts on my part did nothing to change the situation. In horror, I stared at the blank screen, and it stared back! I called a savvy computer friend, who came to my apartment and tried a thing or two but the blank screen remained. My friend said she was sorry she couldn’t help.
I prayed anxious prayers, but still the blank screen!
Fret not
Initially, I decided I am not going to lie awake stewing over the loss, I’m not going to think about my masterpieces — at least they were in my mind, and now gone for good. I have to focus on the future, pick myself up and start all over again. But then the agony of it all returned and almost in tears I thought about articles, chapters of books half-finished–all lost!
Not only did I lose everything, but the Internet also refused to cooperate, a page would pop up telling me the server page was unavailable and to check this, that and the other.
This meant I couldn’t even email friends and grieve my loss with them.
After all, we are told to share one and others burdens and this burden required much sharing, it was so heavy.
On that inauspicious day, I drove to the store where my two-and-a-half-month-old machine had been purchased. It’s probably not very polite to call this technological marvel a machine, but there you are.
I confessed my errors to a very smart young man in the service department. There was an inkling of hope lurking in the back of my mind that he had the know-how to retrieve my files! But he told me he would not be able to do that.
However, he did tell me with confidence that he could reinstall Microsoft Word, the drive that worked the Internet, and he’d be done in five minutes. “Wait over there,” he said, with some authority, indicating a row of chairs.
Mind you I’m old enough to be his grandma, but I thought I should do as he suggested. He certainly was the one in charge. It did take a little longer than five minutes because other customers came in and he listened attentively to the problems they were having and made note of their requirements. None of them had messed up like me.
Consider the click first
Time has gone by since that moment of despair. Once I calmed down, I remembered I had printed off much of my work, so I spent hours retyping and improving upon it, which ultimately led to better articles.
The whole episode taught me some valuable lessons, and this was good, very good. I learned to always back up my files in more places than one. Today I pay close attention before exiting. My writings are stored on a USB, a hard drive and in One Drive. I pay close attention before that final click to exit. And then I think how grateful I am to have one of these marvels of technology; a laptop computer.
This story is published in Koinonia — stories by Christians to encourage, entertain, and empower you in your faith, food, fitness, family, and fun.
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