When I first discovered the world of Apple computers, my mindset about technology completely shifted. Gone was the feeling that a computer was a frustrating, irritating piece of confusing equipment that you had to struggle with in exchange for time on the Internet. My first iBook helped me realize that technology was not just a dry math-and-numbers game, but a living force that could be embraced by creatives and artists and free-spirits. My computer wasn’t a necessary evil I needed to use to get to the “good stuff”, but a tool that made the most mundane things about using it a sensory experience. My computer was the icing on the already phenomenally fascinating cupcake that is the Information Age.

People will argue for the rest of the foreseeable future about the virtues of Mac vs. PC and this technology vs. that technology, but at the end of the day, Steve Jobs and Apple fundamentally changed the way we’re heading into the future. He opened up the doors for us – the right-brainers – to use and enjoy and inspire the increasingly essential world of technology.

So for that, I say “thank you” to Steve Jobs. Rest in peace.