May 6th, 2023 is the date which COMPUTERS4KINDNESS first started. It was a warm spring evening, my friend and I were studying in her room for an upcoming science test. The study guide that my friend was using kept glitching and the browser wouldn’t stop crashing, leading her to eventually lose her mind and angrily shut her laptop. I remember as she shut it she shoved it away and took out another assignment to do on paper, meanwhile I minded my own business the entire time. “Stupid ass computer” is what she had said. I, jokingly, said, “Be careful, your computer is gonna hear that and start a revolution.” The both of us laughed and proceeded to do our schoolwork, the rest of the night was nice until something so strange happened. My friend decided to do online work again, but her laptop wouldn’t work once she opened it up. She pressed the power button repeatedly and even started slapping the screen, but still, no response. We both agreed it was odd, but I couldn’t help myself from joking around. “Shit, dude, you messed up. It’s mad at you.” I said while giggling, but my friend wasn’t having it. She hit her computer for what felt like the hundredth time until her computer screen flashed the log-in screen for a split second, then turned off again. She just sighed loudly and we both came to an agreement that we would just stop studying for the night.

A few days later, at school, we were at our usual lunch table. My friend pulled out her laptop and showed me how it still wouldn’t load. It intrigued me, although it expectedly made my friend furious. “Are you sure it isn’t dead?” I asked her, to which she responded “No! It’s not! I plugged it in last night.” I found it very bizarre, and just then an idea popped into my head. I knew it’d make me sound insane, but I just desperately needed to know if it would work. “Apologize to it.” is what came out of my mouth, and I was 100% serious too. My friend looked at me as if I had five heads. “Just apologize to it, dude! I just want to see what happens.” She kept laughing and wouldn’t apologize to her laptop, so I annoyed her until she got too frustrated and gave in.

“I’m sorry, my computer.” My friend mumbled, looking at me from the side with an expression that showed evident agitation. I knew that the question sounded ridiculous and It was a bit humiliating to ask, but what happened next blew both of our minds. It was unbelievable. The computer turned on just a second after she apologized. My mouth dropped to the floor even though my friend just rolled her eyes and played it off as a coincidence. She was just as surprised as I was, but if I suggested the possibility that her computer was alive, she’d insist I’d need to be in a mental institution.

This encounter kept me up for days until one night, I physically could not take it anymore. I needed to find out more about why this had happened. So, I got out of my bed and booted up my desktop computer, immediately hitting it and yelling at it as soon as it turned on. Just as I hoped, it shut off. As adrenaline rushed through my body, I turned my computer back on. It wouldn’t turn on, so then I knew I had to apologize. “I’m sorry, computer, I’m sorry for hurting you.” As a few minutes passed, my desktop immediately turned back on, even when I wasn’t touching it.