You meet people like this at the library. People who have been coming in every day for YEARS to use the computers and monopolize your time with conversations like this, that seem to go out of their way to avoid listening to anything you try to teach them because theyâd rather you just do it for them.
So one day, this tiny, frail little woman comes to the desk with a huge folder of papers under her arm. She says âI need to use one of the computers,â and Iâm like âalright, Iâll set you up with a guest account.â
And then she says âIâll also need you to show me how to use a computer. Iâm 97 years old and Iâve never even touched one before, but I need to file my health information and they told me I needed to do it using this,â and she holds out a little scrap of paper with a url scrawled on it in a shaky hand.
And Iâm just mentally like âoh no,â but I say of course I can help her. So I sit her down and sign her in, and she stops me to ask basically what the mouse is, and I explain it, but Iâm just thinking that this is going to take a million years. But I start doing a quick and dirty run down of the parts of the computer, the programs, the desktop, what a url is and what the Internet is, what a search engine is, what websites are, and so on.
She doesnât interrupt or ask any questions or anything, and then Iâm like âokay letâs go to this urlâ and itâs an interactive, multi-page form that she needs to put all that info in her folder into and submit, and Iâm just terrified as Iâm explaining it that Iâm going to spend all day with this woman.
But sheâs just like âalright. I think Iâve got it.â And she must have had a secretary job back in the typewriter days, because she just *whips* through the first page of the form and submits and goes on to the next, and tells me sheâll find me if she needs me.
She came over once to tell me she needed an email address and wanted to know how to set one up - I told her about her options and she picked Gmail and went back to the computer and set it up all by herself, and got her information all filed properly in about an hour and a half â and sheâd NEVER used a computer before in her LIFE.
When she was done, she came over to ask me how to turn it off and I showed her and she thanked me for being so patient, and I told her quite honestly that Iâd NEVER seen a novice adult pick up using a computer so fast.
And she said âoh, but itâs so simple! And so useful! My grandkids made it sound so difficult, but Iâm going to pick up my own computer tomorrow!â
And I think she must have, because I never saw her in the library again.
Anyway I hope Iâm that quick when Iâm 97.
blakekathryn
origamiaround
