Alright, so let me tell you about this one. I started calling this whole ordeal “coming it” in my head, mostly because for the longest time, it felt like I was constantly on the verge of getting it, whatever “it” was with this particular beast, but never quite there. You know that feeling?
I’d decided, for reasons that seemed brilliant at the time, to get this ancient piece of software, something really obscure, to play nice with my current setup. We’re talking software that was probably written before some of you were born. No support, no community, just me and a bunch of cryptic error messages.
Man, it was a grind.
I’d spend hours, literally hours, just poking at it. Trying one thing, then another. I’d read through ancient forum posts from like, a decade ago, hoping for a clue. Most of the time, it was just banging my head against a wall. I’d get one part to flicker to life, then another part would just die. Classic, right?
So, why the heck was I even bothering?
Good question. It wasn’t for work, not this time. See, a while back, things got a bit… slow. Unexpectedly slow. My main gig, the one that usually keeps me busy, suddenly had this massive lull. Projects got pushed, meetings canceled. Suddenly, I had all this time on my hands. Too much time, if I’m being honest. And I’m the type of person who can’t just sit still. I gotta be tinkering with something.
This old software? It was a challenge I’d shelved years ago. But now, with nothing but time and a stubborn streak, I figured, why not? It became my Everest, my white whale. My wife thought I was nuts, probably. She’d just see me staring at the screen, muttering to myself.
- I’d start in the morning, coffee in hand.
- Tweak some settings.
- Compile some obscure library.
- Watch it crash.
- Repeat.
Honestly, most days I felt like giving up. I’d tell myself, “This is stupid. It’s not worth it.” But then, the next day, I’d be right back at it. It’s that weird obsession, you know? You’re so deep in, you can’t just walk away.
And then, one afternoon, it just… worked. Not with a bang, or some grand revelation. It was more like a quiet click. I changed some tiny, insignificant-looking parameter, something I’d overlooked a hundred times. And the whole thing just hummed to life. No errors. It just did what it was supposed to do.
I was finally “coming it.”
The relief was huge, of course. But there was also this weird, hollow feeling. Like, “That’s it? All that for this?” It wasn’t going to change the world. It was just this one, stubborn thing that I finally beat into submission.
Looking back, it wasn’t really about the software. It was about having something to pour that restless energy into when everything else was on hold. It kept me sane, I think. Or maybe it just drove me a different kind of crazy. Either way, I got there. I came, I saw, and I finally, finally got ‘it’.
