The world of technology was introduced to me, albeit rather primitively, in the 3rd grade, where we made “robots” out of recyclables and one little motor to spin a gadget of our choosing. I became a nightmare to my parents in that some electronics would magically disassemble.Fast forward to my middle school years where I took up circuitry as a bit of a hobby. I loved creating little contraptions of my own - and a few short years later, I learned the basics of computers. I loved to tinker with them. Mistakes happened often but taught important lessons. Of course, I also built my own computer - and that ran the beloved Windows 7.By the time I went into high school, a different platform struck my eye: The Macintosh. These sleek laptops with a bright glowing Apple were alluring. I saved up, and with a little extra Christmas money, I bought one of the white plastic MacBooks loaded up with MacOS Snow Leopard. (Anyone else miss the Cat names? Just me?) I fell in love with the media-focused aspects that came standard on the Mac. Programs like iPhoto and iMovie allowed me to play around with different ideas.College came, and with it was the rush to figure out what I wanted to do in life. I met some really great people and got a rounded education featuring the arts, philosophy, humanities, sciences, and technologies. I felt each element played an important role.I settled on technology, and my career path favored customer-facing roles. It felt right - I didn’t want to be locked in a back room, but I still wanted to work with technology.Today, my goal with each interaction is exactly the same: Don’t be THAT IT guy. Instead, I want to lend a listening ear to frustrations, find the source of the issue and correct it, educate the person who needed the help where I can, and build trust with them as an IT professional.The reality is, technology isn’t some luxury anymore in the workplace. It is an essential item.