(As I was typing the title, I thought about how I wished I were writing, “Cha-Cha-Cha-Ching” instead, as that might indicate I’d come into some money, won the lottery, discovered a rich old uncle I never knew I had who was a misery millionaire and had left me his entire estate in his will… Then again, I realized “Cha-Cha-Cha-Ching” could also mean I’d run into a situation that was going to cost me a lot of money, like replacing a car transmission or engine. Maybe it’s good I’m sticking with Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes.)

In my almost 63 rotations around the sun, I have seen many changes. Sometimes we have a choice about changes, but often we do not. Those are the changes I don’t necessarily like, the ones that cause me apprehension and fear. This is never more true than when it comes to technology. Sure, I own a cell phone and obviously, a computer of some kind. But I use neither to their maximum capacity and have no real desire to learn more than I absolutely need to achieve my goals. I’ve seen people’s phones with seemingly 100 or more apps, people who use their phones for almost everything they do. I have seen the commercials about how you can use your phone to turn on lights and kitchen appliances. I have seen people who synchronize their outside holiday lights to music through their phone. People do all of their banking by phone. I guess that’s great, but it’s not for me.

Recently, when my old laptop was beginning to go from bad to worse in terms of speed and the appearance of a black screen that flashed and then went solid, making me manually shut down and reboot the system, I knew I was going to have to make a change. That meant buying a new laptop. The research is endless, as are the brands and models within each brand. I wasn’t looking for something with all of the bells and whistles currently available (which, in my humble opinion, become obsolete and replaced with newer bells and whistles too quickly). I had three priorities: price, size and having a number pad on the right of the keyboard. Brand wasn’t all that important, as I’ve owned several different brands. I finally settled on one that fit my criteria, and ordered it.

So afraid was I of change that, once it arrived, I unboxed it and plugged it in to charge the battery. And then it sat. For a couple of weeks it sat. I procrastinated having to go through the technological rigamarole of getting it set up so I continued to use the old one, frustrating as it could be. But recently, the day came when I knew I was having too many problems, so the new one was set up on my desk and I was prepared to spend the hours necessary to get the system set up. I had been smart enough to download my desktop items from the old one onto a flash drive (I’d done that when it first started giving me problems, just in case). I climbed under the desk to plug the unit in. I opened the lid and found the power button (on the opposite side than my old laptop).

A female voice who called herself Cortana spoke to me and started to give me directions to set up the computer. Hmmm, maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all!

As it turns out, it was a breeze! Apparently, so much of our information is now out on those technology clouds that can be retrieved without trying. I have Windows 10 (which I had on the old one), so at least I didn’t have to learn my way through a newer system. I was asked for my password, and the one from the old laptop allowed me in and onto the desktop of the new one! Color me surprised! Even my toolbar of favorites was available to me without having to set all of them up again! I was up and operational in well less than an hour! Here I’d been, postponing the change-over because I perceived it was going to test my technological illiteracy and my patience, and it was nothing to get up and running!

I still don’t like change. But this was a lesson in finding out that change isn’t always as fearful as it seems. Let’s just hope this new laptop lasts me a long time!