The Time Apple Made Me Cry

I guess there is no yin without yang. My last post discussed all things celebratory and this post is quite the opposite. The best place to start is always at the beginning. The evening of my birthday I decided to download all of my pictures from my cell phone onto my laptop. I’ve done it many times before but I’ll admit that technology and I are HB (hi-bye) friends at best. I could probably use anti-anxiety medication every time I have to do this tedious task. I connected my phone to my laptop and it prompted me to unlock my phone, something I do about a hundred times a day without thinking. Well this evening—as a lovely birthday present to myself—my phone decided it was no longer recognizing my passcode. It was the beginning of the end!

I tried in vain to put my code in. No such luck. It told me to cool it for five, fifteen, even an hour at a time. As the kind-hearted birthday wishes scrolled onto my computer screen, I was in full panic mode. I phoned Apple and spoke to various people who each gave me contradictory advice. Some told me I was locked out for good and would have to wipe my phone clean in order to have access to it again. Others told me I could still salvage my pictures and content. I was at a loss! At this point I actually did take anti-anxiety medication as I sat in bed and ate a slice of caramel cheesecake. Later—as I laid in bed crying—my fingers were still fidgeting in midair repeating my passcode. I was living my worst nightmare (yes, First World problems but I had over 4,500 pictures stored, mostly of my kids).

The next morning I showed up at the Apple store and my fears were realized. The Apple technician broke the devastating news to me. I was permanently locked out of my phone and the only way to get back into it was to wipe it clean of all its contents—pictures included! I begged, I pleaded, I needlessly tried to negotiate another possible option. No luck. I finally resigned to my fate and handed him my phone. I stood in the Apple store and silently sobbed. My newly 43 year old self had no shame crying into my mask, frantically still trying to figure it out in my mind what could have possibly gone wrong and what I could have done differently. I felt like the biggest fool. Surprisingly, not for being a grown woman crying in a mall but for being so damn technologically ignorant.

As I stood there watching my phone get completely erased, I kept asking myself the question, ‘What is the lesson here?’. It suddenly hit me. My children are at home and healthy, as well as my extended family. Pictures—whether digital or in print—are material things. I never thought of my pictures as ‘material possessions’. Like all material possessions, we are attached to them but they don’t define us and we certainly won’t take them with us at the end of this lifetime. I had to let go, and just be grateful that I was able to go home afterwards and hug my children. My actual children, not just lovingly stare at an image of them. I said to myself, ‘chin up girl, you lost nothing of grave importance’. I could possibly recover some pictures that I had sent to my loved ones through social media.

The gentleman who eventually handed back my phone apologized for the situation and asked if there was anything else he could do for me. I thought, ‘yes, turn back time!’. Instead, I politely thanked him for his time and wiped my tears as I walked out, I said to myself again, ‘chin up girl, you lost nothing of grave importance’.

I spent the rest of the day and evening trying my best to recover the digital pictures that I had sent to others and tried to restore all my apps and set up my phone just the way I like it. In the end, I was able to recover about 1,200 out of about 4,500 pictures. I was grateful and humbled. I felt as though I had learned my lesson well. I have to admit, even editing this blog was difficult for me because I was reliving that anxiety-fuelled evening every time I read it.

I wanted to share my story because I know that some of you have experienced loss of material things, and many more will have a similar experience in the future. Keep in mind the life lesson. We are more than our material possessions—and even stripped of it all, what we truly cherish most cannot be lost—the love we hold in our hearts for every person we care about in this lifetime is all that sincerely and truly matters.

Well, and of course maybe don’t use the passcode feature on your phone without writing it down, or bypass it altogether! Oh, and keep that phone backed up somewhere…