By Scott Cameron
I like to browse the web just as much as the next guy. Music, guitars, woodworking projects – you name it and my inquisitive mind has searched for it.
Those searches are the modern-day pastime we’ve all come to take for granted. If asked, most people would say, it’s just internet, right? Well, actually, no.
Sure, sometimes internet connectivity is just wanted. At the risk of sounding dramatic, I’ll say at other times, it’s needed and when you have it, it’s lifechanging.
When my wife and I had the opportunity to purchase her childhood home, we jumped at the idea. The location, just outside of Onsted – a Michigan town of just over 800 – appealed to us. We could have a barn, plenty of trees and even chickens, but there was one thing we couldn’t have: Internet.
For a while, we could get by with only locally-available DSL internet (I use the term loosely). It worked, albeit very slowly, as long as you were logging on in the middle of the night when everyone else in town was in bed. We complained and searched for other options, but nothing else was feasible. We were stuck, which we dealt with, until we couldn’t.
My wife decided to pursue a degree though Le Cordon Bleu’s online Hospitality Management and Marketing program. Doing anything online took forever, but our breaking point came when it was time for her to submit her final project. She had worked so hard. We had gotten everything ready in advance. We started the upload process Sunday morning. Nine hours later, the content still wasn’t fully uploaded and my wife had missed her deadline.
Feeling desperate and defeated, I feared my tiny neighborhood would never have access to anything better than a glorified dial-up connection. Then, a few months later, on a cold winter morning, I woke up to see Comcast contractors laying cable. I was so happy to see them that I went to McDonald’s to buy them all coffee.
By the end of the day, our lives were changed for the better. We felt as though we had access to a whole new world – one we had been cut off from for the past two years. Since then, my wife has finished her degree and even started a roller derby team – a feat that would have been impossible without the internet connection that allows us to connect with others online. I’m now able to telecommute several days a month to avoid the two-hour round-trip commute to my work place where I handle information technology. I can also remote into work to fix network issues after hours and weekends when I am on call without having to always drive in to troubleshoot.
True, sometimes, internet is just internet. In my case, it’s a lifeline, and the impact Comcast has made simply by listening, working with me and offering my family fast and reliable internet access, cannot be underestimated.
