I Didn’t Have a Laptop for 4 Months: The Rise and Fall of Creativity

At the beginning of my 12-month deployment, I purchased a 2019 MacBook Pro (with a touch bar), and I was ready to create content.

For the first month, I edited four YouTube videos to keep up with my audience and content creation.

Once I finally flew overseas, I started writing blogs, doing YouTube, and other daily tasks. If you’ve ever been away from home for an extended period, then you know how meaningful your technology is.

My excited self plugged in my charger directly into a middle-eastern style outlet without checking the wattage on my charging block and popped it.

They didn’t sell MacBook Pro chargers out here. We have Amazon, but I didn’t think it was my charger that broke at the time. I believed I just threw $1600 down the drain.

Fast forward four months, and I notice one member of my Army leadership bring the same laptop into the office. On my 24-hour shift, I try to charge my computer with his block.

Voila! It works! All of my goals of content creation overseas were kicked back into overdrive. I placed my Amazon order and got back on track.

Here are three struggles I faced in the four months I was computerless.

1. I Couldn’t Create content

As a creator, the majority of my work is done on a computer. The video editing, blogging, and graphic design are all typically done with the use of a laptop.

If you take the source of creation away from someone who is a creator at heart, it’s debilitating.

So much of the fulfillment I receive from posting something I worked hard on into the world was put on hold. Sure, I could use a friend’s laptop for a blog post, but it wasn’t the same.

I eventually started to lose my touch and leaned on my phone.

Nothing was the same, my mood dropped, and I felt like I was waiting months of my life that could have been utilized productively.

Having no efficient way to create content resulted in me having a stale mindset without much inspiration. I definitely dulled down a bit, and people noticed.

2. Little to No Entertainment

For the majority of my early deployment, I leaned on using my terabyte full of movies to keep me entertained anywhere I traveled to.

My movies and TV shows kept me inspired. Without them, I would have to reach out to my battle buddies and watch with them.

I love socializing, but the vibe when watching a movie by yourself is sometimes more intimate than with other people.

If I hadn’t purchased YouTube Premium, I would have lost all my creative touch and motivation to do anything.

Through YouTube, I did a few things:

• Stayed up to date with current events
• Learned about the stock market
• Watched sports highlights
• Watched productivity videos
• Learned new workouts and running techniques

I am beyond grateful I have a functioning cell phone that I can use as a tool. It’s just that a laptop offers so much more of a productive vibe. A computer gives you more speed to accomplish more tasks, unlike a cell phone.

A cell phone’s mobility outweighs a laptop since you can take it anywhere, but I would rather have three productive computer hours than a cell phone the entire day.

3. My Laptop Was Basically My Life

We all have something in our lives that we are dependent on. In my case, having a computer was my unlock to create and stay entertained.

Take both of those outlets away during one of the most challenging times of my life, and you have a defining moment.

I am grateful to have gone through the struggle of being without such an essential asset in my life, but I would absolutely not willfully go through this again.

I reached out to fewer people back at home simply because I lost the speed of having multiple conversations at once and tending to each of them in a timely manner.

When I “lost” my laptop, I lost part of myself.

If I had never been able to figure out the root of my computer’s problem, I wouldn’t have created over 100 blog posts, reached out to as many people, and engaged with the world back home.

Having a dependency on technology is the way I operate daily. To be relieved of the duties I felt I needed to do on my computer was a phenomenal learning experience.

Taking a break from something I took for granted opened up my eyes to how great of an opportunity a laptop truly is.

My laptop has allowed me to use it to pay for itself in the year I’ve owned it, and by losing access was an absolute struggle.

Self-awareness and a little attention to detail go a long way. If you are a creator, I wish you to take care of your equipment, or you’ll go through the same struggles I did.