[INTRO]
Since I don’t start Accenture until September, I’ve got some free time on my hands. One of the ways I’ve decided to use this period is to exercise my creative writing with a mini-series focusing on everyday objects around us. My goal is to imagine what the things around us, such as our smartphones, would say if they could speak. Through these short stories, I’ll offer my commentary on how these objects affect our lives.
Without further ado, here is the start of Bringing Life to the Lifeless. (BLL for short)
—
Life is interesting as a college student’s laptop. My owner’s name is Kenny, and he just started his freshman year in college. I like to think of myself as his aluminum swiss army knife to tackle homework, manage photos, and peruse Facebook. If Kenny was a knight, I’d be the sword he’d take the battle. Together, we conquer!
Kenny looked so excited when he unboxed me. “Dad, thank you so much buying me this!! I’m going to work so hard!” He gave me a hug (weird kid, I know), then named me. “Hmm what should I call you? Well, Macbook Pro. Macbook. Pro. How about Max?” He mulled it over in his head. “YEAH! I like Max. Well Max, we are going to have an awesome time together.”
Sure, the name isn’t very original being that it shares the first two letters of my model name, but it’s definitely grown on me.
Anyways, fast forward 12 weeks from that day and here I am sitting on his desk. It’s midnight. Kenny has just come back to his dorm. He looks at the clock and makes an annoyed expression when he remembers he’s procrastinated wayyy too much. The quarter is coming to an end and I’ve reminded Kenny at least 10 times to work on his Literature Composition essay. Silly how he continues to ignore my iCal reminders, all I’m trying to do is help!
He boots me up and opens the assignment description. Good Kenny! Finally. Let’s bang these four pages out and you’ll be in bed by 2am! Kenny fires up Word and types in a heading with his name, the class, and title. That’s my boy Kenny!
He sits back for a moment to think and scribbles down a few thoughts. “Hmm, I need some music.” he says as he opens up Spotify and plays Daft Punk (his favorite work music). As I blast Get Lucky through my speakers, his fingers dance across the keyboard has he pounds out the introductory paragraph.
Suddenly, Kenny alt-tabs into Chrome and opens a new tab for Facebook. No Kenny! Stop!! He browses his news feed and stops on a photo posted by Sarah Nelson, captain of the women’s soccer team, who Kenny randomly met at a mutual friend’s party. He has a huuuge crush on her. Kenny you need to get back to work! He instead goes to her profile and clicks through her photos. She’s a beautiful brunette and I wouldn’t be surprised if a bunch of guys chased her around.
After five minutes, Kenny finally closes the Facebook tab. Whew. He goes back to his essay, rereads his intro paragraph, and types a few words to start his first argument. Alright Kenny! He pauses, deletes his last sentence, and sits back to think. Just keep typing Kenny, keep your ideas flowing! His hands return to the keyboard, and just as he’s about to start typing again his phone rings away from a call. Oh no, this can’t be good.
“Starcraft? Now? Agh, I really need to finish this essay. Hmm. Well… FINE. Just a game or two, then I’ll start working.” he says.
Kenny, you are headed down a slippery slippery slope!! He ends the call and opens up Starcraft. It’s going to be a long night.
