Computer Stress

“Use the mouse,” the manager said in an impatient tone as she walked away.

“What was she talking about?” I wondered as I sat in front of the computer. All I wanted was to fill out an application form for a job at Target, but there was no form on the desk in front of me. “What is a mouse, anyway? Was there a rat in the small cubicle where I sat?”

The manager returned. There was an impatient look on her face. “Sir,’ she said, “there are other people waiting to sign up.”

“But I don’t see the form,” I retorted.

“It’s on the computer,” the manager hissed. She looked harried, but that wasn’t my fault. A line was forming outside the cubicle where I sat. “Use the mouse, Mister, and click on the start button.” She picked up a small object that was beside the computer. “This is a mouse, use it,” she said as she handed me the object and walked away. I felt self-conscious as I turned the ‘mouse’ over and looked at it. It did look a little like a mouse with a long tail that was attached somewhere on the computer. At his point, I began to sweat with embarrassment for I did not know what to do with the ‘mouse’ nor how to begin, and I sensed the grumbling in the queue outside. So, I picked up my satchel, which was lying on the floor beside me, and left without making eye contact with anyone.

Back at the apartment, where I was staying with my brother since I migrated, I watched my young nephew doing something on his small computer. He was tapping away with his finger.

“Is that your computer?” I asked.

“This is my tablet,” he replied.

“In my country, a tablet is medicine,” I said. Sammy looked on me and smiled. “Uncle Hubert, we have medicine tablet and computer tablet.”

“Do you use a mouse sometimes?” was my next question.

Sammy pointed to his father’s office. “Daddy has a mouse for his computer.”

I could see that he was getting tired of my questions, so I left him and went into the office. My brother, Ian, had a well-equipped office. There was a large desk with three drawers on either side. A computer sat on the top right of the highly polished surface. I looked for the mouse. There it was but the tail was missing. I picked it up and turned it around. I put it on the desk and moved it around. Nothing happened. The computer did nothing,

“Sammy,” I called, “can you come here, please.”

Sammy came running in. “Uncle Hubert, what’s the matter?”

I began, “I never had a computer so there are lots of things I don’t know. So, I want you to help me, Sammy. I need to learn how to use a computer. First, how do you get this mouse to work? And where is its tail?”

Sammy laughed heartedly. “You’re so funny, Uncle Hubert. Let me show you.” Sammy pulled out the chair under the desk and sat down in front of the computer. “First, you have to turn on the computer.” He pressed a button on a large box that stood on the floor. “This is the button to press to turn it on.” The screen in front of us lighted up and words appeared. Soon, little pictures appeared to the left of the screen. On the right side were too names, Ian and Sammy, Sammy picked up the mouse. “See, Uncle Hubert, this is how you use the mouse. I am going to click on my name. I am not allowed to click on daddy’s name. Anyway, it is password protected. Mine isn’t.” I hadn’t a clue what he was talking about, but I watched intently. He placed the mouse on the desk and moved it about. A little black arrow appeared on the screen. When he moved the mouse, the arrow moved. When the arrow pointed to his name, Sammy said, “Now I have to click it.” I watched his finger as it pressed down on the mouse. The screen changed to another set of little pictures and Sammy clicked and clicked.

His little fingers moved rapidly over the keyboard as he typed. In my country, we used a typewriter. You had to put a sheet of paper in the typewriter and the words you typed came out on the paper. This was different. The words Sammy typed came out on the computer screen. After Sammy went back to his play, I sat in front of the computer and tentatively began to type. I tried to type my name but the letters kept multiplying across the page, so I gave up. I did not want to call Sammy again. I was feeling foolish. I had to learn the computer.

When my brother, Ian came home I told him that I wanted to take computer lessons. “That’s a good idea,” he said, “you have to know how to use a computer if you want to get ahead. You can sign up for night school. Work in the days and go to school at night.”

“But I will feel dumb at night school in front of the other students,” I told him of my experience at Target. He laughed sympathetically. “Well, at least you now know what a mouse is,” he said. “I will teach you the basics and you can practice on my computer. I will add your name on as a user and when you come to use the computer you will click on your name. First, you have to practice how to use the mouse. It can be quite slippery. I will let you play solitaire on the computer until you get comfortable with the mouse.”

“I don’t know how to do that,” I said. “I play solitaire with cards.”

“Well, it is the same game except that you use the mouse to move the cards," Ian said. “After supper, I will give you your first lesson.”

I sat at the computer, mouse in hand. True to his promise Ian had put my name on the computer screen. He called it an icon. Now all I had to do was click on the icon that had my name. I thought that’s easy stuff, but the slippery mouse kept meandering all over the screen. My nephew, Sammy, was standing beside me giggling at my attempt to control the mouse.

“Go do your homework,” Ian said to Sammy, ushering him from the office. I was glad, for the little tyke was making me nervous. Eventually, I got the meandering mouse to touch my name and I clicked the mouse. The screen changed and a lot of little pictures showed up.

“Those are APPS, short for applications,” my brother said. If you click on each one you will open a different application. Now click on the one with SOLITAIRE.” After struggling with the meandering mouse, I finally got it to point at the icon, SOLITAIRE. A whole deck of cards showed up. Ian then showed me how to use the mouse to move the cards. It was difficult at first to control the mouse, but the game was exciting enough to motivate me to keep trying. After a while, I was moving the mouse like a pro without even realizing it.

Every free moment I got, I sat at the computer, clicked on my name icon, clicked on SOLITAIRE, and played game after game. I was in the middle of an exciting game when Ian stopped me. “Enough of that,” he said. “Now that you can control the mouse, I am going to teach you how to type in WORD.”

There was an icon called WORD. I clicked on it and a blank page opened with tabs across the top. Ian told me to type my name. I used my two index fingers as I was accustomed to on my typewriter. When I struck the letter c for Clarence, the c took off ‘faster than a speeding bullet’ across the page and onto the second and third lines. Ian shouted, “Stop!” and pulled my hand up from the keyboard. “Clarence, this is not a typewriter. You have to touch the keys lightly. If you press down too hard that is what will happen. Now try again.” He clicked on a little backward-looking arrow at the top of the screen and everything on the page disappeared.  “That is an UNDO arrow,” he said, “Think of it as your friend when you make a mistake.”

I tried again, gingerly touching the letter ‘c’ on the keyboard. It came out alright, so I continued typing my name on the computer. “I typed my name on a computer” I shouted in my head. I was so proud. Ian made me type my name and address several times using uppercase and lowercase letters, pressing the enter key to get to the next line. He showed me how to highlight a word to change the font to whatever I wanted and how to delete and how to save. It was a lot to take in. Then he left me to ‘play’ with it. “Just type anything,” he said. “You have used a typewriter at home so typing on the computer will come easy to you. Type a letter, or an essay, or an experience…just type. Click on the tabs above to see what they do. You will soon be teaching yourself Microsoft Word.” Then he was gone, and I was alone to fend for myself.

Every day I sat at the computer and opened WORD. I struggled to remember what Ian had shown me. “You will soon be teaching yourself,” stuck in my brain as I ‘played’ with this new technology. I typed and deleted, experimented with different fonts, copied poems from a book trying to keep them in the same format. My favorite computer key was the UNDO key. My favorite words were, “Sammy, come show me how to…”. Sammy was quite patient with his computer illiterate uncle.

Click, click… delete, delete…try this, try that…. I was becoming quite proficient. My brother was impressed, even my precocious little nephew was impressed.

My next lesson was to fill out a form. Ian downloaded an employment form from the internet. He told me to pretend I am applying for a job and fill in the form as fast as I can. “Practice,” he said, “over and over. Everywhere you go in this country you may have to fill out forms, even to apply for a Driver’s License.” I struggled with the unemployment form. It was a slow and frustrating start but finally, I was able to fill it in at a reasonable time. Ian downloaded other forms for me to practice with until I was feeling confident enough to go out and apply for a job, but not at Target where I had been before. Ian showed me how to go on the internet for whatever I wanted. He introduced me to UTUBE and AMAZON and other cool sites.

Click, click, trial and error, stiff neck, sore back ... using the mouse was easy now. The internet was fun. I watched sports, got the news. I was a computer whiz, so I thought. Anyway, I was ready for the world. I went out there armed with ‘computer knowledge.’ I went to Target smiling, “I need a job.” I sat in the cubicle confident as I sat at the computer filling out the employment form.