I got on my computer very late Wednesday night and I noticed that my Facebook's News Feed exploded with the news that Steve Jobs, the co-creator of Apple Inc., died peacefully in his sleep. I was very sad and troubled about this news, but not for the same reason as most people. Jobs was know as the guy who always had just one more trick up his sleeve and continued to surprise the world over with his new products and the creation of Pixar. However, I was not one of those people. All three of my housemates own a Mac, but I proudly own a PC. I've never owned an iPhone, iPod, iPad or even used iTunes before. I was sad that Steve Jobs passed away because of his personal outlook on life and what it meant for him to truly live his life to the fullest. When Jobs gave the Stanford Univerisy commencement speech in 2005 he said: "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."
Jobs dropped out of college after just six months and then went to classes that he was more interested in for the next 18 months. He didn't listen to his parents when they wanted him to be a college graduate. He strove to go along his own path and live the life that he wanted to live, no matter the consequences.
I think that in this day and age so many people conform to a mold that everyone else in their life has laid out for them. So many people go to college just because, "That's the right thing to do after you graduate high school." Or I'll ask people why they dress the way that they do and their response is, "Because everyone else is doing it."
Your life is called your life for a reason. Break out of the mold and live life with the desire to follow your own path. You may not know where the path may take you, but it will be chosen by you and will reflect what you want in life. Steve Jobs said in his commencement speech, "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future."
Even if you have never owned Mac products, like me, live your life looking forwards and don't live trapped in the life that fits what everyone else wants. Then look back and see how far you've come living the life that you want and are proud to live.
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