current music:
Everything But The Girl - I Always Was Your Girl (crazy, I know)



I was digging through old writing I did and decided to put up a copy of this here. It was part of Apple's call for messages following the passing away of Steve Jobs. I greatly admired Apple, as a company, and also as the (pardon the pun) fruit of a pioneering vision. I was sad to hear of his passing. I wrote this. I hope you like it.


Dear friends in Apple,

Hi, my name is Raph Doval-Santos. I'm from the Philippines, and am one of many people inspired by the late Steve Jobs. I'm writing to share in both mourning his passing, as well as celebrating the great gift of his life, and how he's made our world a better place.

I was four years old when I first touched a Macintosh. It was 1988, and my aunt at the time was a programmer making a CASE tool for the early Macs. She had a one of the early units at home; I don't remember the model anymore as I was too young. Still, it was the first time I ever saw a mouse. I even remember how pretty the letters looked, and how the white icons on the screen seemed nice to look at. I remembered how much easier it felt to use, compared to the green-and-black letters out of the other computers I had seen then.

My aunt then let me play video games on it - primitive billiards table games - and it shaped me forever. It began not only a long love affair with video games, but also a love for technology, and the never-ending childlike curiosity to explore machines, gadgets, software, and emerging innovations.

This story might be nothing new to most, but in a third-world country where most people shun the new and threateningly exotic solutions to problems, it the first seeds of my life-long hunger to learn and inquisitive approach to finding answers to questions no matter how big or small. It was like a first lesson in learning that even what isn't familiar and scary may still be the door to another way of thinking and working.

At an early age, I was lucky to be exposed to technology. I'm probably one of millions of my generation that grew up acquainted with machines, and the impact they made on my life. I remember growing up playing games on computers, writing poetry on a screen, and have listened to music made portable. I'm immersed in technology, and when I pass on, I'll likely be immersed even more deeply.

I didn't realize much across the years I lived. Looking back, I do see now a bigger picture, the same way Steve eloquently described as "connecting the dots looking backward". Steve's innovations in technology, taken individually might not shake the world right away. Yet, they transformed the way we looked at tech. Today we expect tech to be stylish, ergonomic, and intelligently designed. The first time I saw an iPod, and I remember thinking "How easy to use a track wheel is!" and I thought from then on I'd never go back to pushing buttons again. I remember a time when touch-screen clipboard pads were a thing of Star Trek; now they're real, and they're all Apple's inventions.

Steve Jobs, however, wasn't just a builder of pretty things - many people do that. What stuns us is how he did it with a passion that few can do. He loved what he did. His company was powered by that passion. Through this, Apple made wonderful things, and I felt like somebody out there really gave careful, loving thought about what I was going to use, because he or she cared about how I felt using it, and in that way, I felt cared for. Whenever I opened my MacBook or picked a new song from my iTunes playlist, I'm grateful for the passion Steve put into his work. I'm grateful for how my life is easier because my MacBook doesn't get viruses like my PC's, or how the iPhone's camera actually takes lovely shots unlike other phone-cameras. Where something is just an 'add-on', on Apple it's an essential bit, and I love the work Apple has done, and by extension, what Steve Jobs has done.

Steve's great love and desire to follow through for what he loved so greatly pushed the limits of what the status quo could be. We may not all be Apple fans. We may not all be directly affected by his life's ending. But we must take away something of how his tireless drive for life pushed us all forward. He was an example of what he preached, and this became an inspiration in my life's big decision-points.

Steve challenged us all to do what we loved to do, with confidence and a certain "recklessness" born of faith it all will be well. It's this same courage that has directed my life today, as a fund raising associate in a non-profit that helps charities and other advocacy groups perform the work that pushes the world forward. It's the same kind of 'abandon' that made me choose to leave my career on hold, and explore the southern Philippines as a Jesuit volunteer, teaching high school English to students of the indigenous tribal peoples.

My life was changed by Steve Jobs's example. I chose to take this road-less-traveled in a certain solidarity with what Steve Jobs said - do what we love, waste nothing of your life, and have faith it works out. I will say that while I may never build a touch-screen mobile device, or a new cloud-computing solution, if my own journey led me to new students being able to pass their college entrance tests, or for another family to be served be a well-funded charity, then the world is brighter by me. And it is brighter by me, because of the light Steve's example was to me.

My heart goes out to Steve Jobs' family, and his close friends. I too, will miss him, for the light he lit half a world away has already been the beacon that pushes me forward, in my corner of the world. I will pray for him and his family, and I hope somebody else, too, may have had a life made better by his work and his example.


With warmth,
Raph