I Didn't Find Technology, It Found Me

Today I'm looking forward to attending an Intel event with a few fantastic mom and tech bloggers to discuss technology use among women. It should be fun and I anticipate a lively discussion about how we each use technology, why we incorporate it into our daily lives and what we wish it could do for us. I know I'm not a typical female in that I hear about and incorporate new technology, gadgets and software into my life earlier than most.

I wasn't always this way. I wasn't raised in a highly technical family, and I didn't intend to work in or with technology, but the life found me when I met my husband and he moved to Silicon Valley when we were engaged and I was still in school in Michigan. Suffice it to say, I didn't find technology, it found me.

I remember my last few months in school and waiting until late east coast time (midnight-ish) to chat with one of my tech PR mentors, Kristi, whom I met through my husband and how it should have been a clue to me when she didn't get home until late that my work life would be the same! I remember my trip out there to job hunt (ahem, LaptopTVMom ?) and how giddy I was to return home to find faxed offer letters on my dad's fax machine. (Yes, offer letters were faxed back in 1999.)

Looking back, I can say that I'm grateful that although I wasn't surrounded by technology, my parents weren't afraid of it, and didn't shelter me from it. I definitely didn't embrace embrace my capacity to understand technology growing up, but I do remember taking a summer computer class at what I'm guessing must have been about seven years old and learning to write and run simple programs with green flashing cursors on a black background, or later programming pixel colors and other computer activities as a kid that seem so primitive now. Little did I know how well those things would prepare me for life with c2cDad. ;-)

While nearly all of our professional and business contacts live lives immersed in technology, most of my long-time friends, family and neighbors are smack dab in the middle of the technology adoption phase. So while I'll be attending this event with Intel today and will likely find validation and inspiration in what we discuss (yay!) about women's use of technology, I'll be keeping my sisters and friends in mind and wondering what they'd think of our chat and what I'll learn. I'll let ya know...