I am asking because my family – being my hubby-to-be, our unborn baby (due at the beginning of September) and me – would perfectly qualify for it.

Inspired by your Stanford commencement address in 2005, I would like to tell you our very personal “Apple” Story.

When my fiancé and I got together in March 2006, he already had one of your great 60GB iPods. Being a big fan of yours, he thought I should join the club and gave me an iPod nano as a birthday gift in May. This is how our story began.

It didn’t take long and I got my next gift – one of those awesome Nike + iPod Sport Kits and a Nike Sport Armband. And off I ran! Believe me, I have been the star in every gym and on every path or road I have been running on since then. My computer is already filled with lots of running profiles, reaching from 2006 up to 2008.

In 2007, my fiancé and I went to New York for 10 days to take our love for Apple products to the next level.

The shiny and at the same time awesome-looking Apple glass cube on Fifth Avenue had to be our first shopping destination, of course. My fiancé got all excited walking down the stairs, thrilled by its size and design. We had sworn ourselves to just “have a look”. After all, it was our first day in New York.

Well, this is what ACTUALLY happened. After strolling around in the store for about an hour, admiring all the computers, iPods, iPhones and other devices and gadgets, we both ended up buying a Mac – a silver MacBook Pro for my fiancé who is in programming and system development and a black MacBook for me to look all fancy and up-to-date at work and at university where I am currently doing my Ph.D.

Since we live in Austria, we couldn’t just stop there. So we bought two sets of adapters, different programs and a black MacBook case. One of our most life-changing purchases was the Apple TV Box. No more DVDs piled up on our shelves! As soon as we got home from the States we started copying our movies, saving them on our external hard-disks (we’ve had to buy 4 new ones since then ) and watching our movies via Apple TV.

If you checked our iTunes account you would probably find us under “Craziest People Spending Loads of Money on iTunes”. We are more-than-regular customers when it comes to music, movies as well as TV shows.

Christmas 2007 I was surprised one more time. I got the much longed for iPhone. People were all going “Ah” and “Oh” seeing me with it. When they asked me where I had gotten it from I just said: Santa Claus. Soon after that my fiancé got himself one, too.

In February this year, my beloved fiancé turned 30! I felt this strong urge and wish to give him something special … something to remember. So I bought him a 23″ Apple Cinema Display. You should have seen his face!
We even documented the whole unpacking and setting up process with pictures. He has never loved sitting at the computer and working more. A dark brown – orange Crumpler case especially made for MacBook Pro’s was just a little extra.

Going with the display, we have got a German keyboard as well – you know, because of all those weird letters German-speaking people use. In the course of the last few months my fiancé thought we had to have the Time Capsule as well. I have to say – it has made working a lot more fun and way safer!!! (I am a specialist when it comes to accidentally deleting top important files )

Now that the iPhone 3G is out, we are already thinking about getting that one too.

What I am trying to say is that we admire your and your team’s work. We are delighted by your innovative and elegant inventions and impressed by the enormous number of great ideas you have come up with in the past years.

You should know that there is a little family out there (South of Austria, to be precise ) fascinated by you as a person and businessman as well as by your outstanding and great products.

We wish you all the best!

B + S + a little Apple fan-to-be

PS. Maybe you could give that “Apple Family of the Year” Award some thought?!
PPS. I hope our email did not go directly into your spam filter.

There is one thing, though, that will always be with you – that will always try to make your life a little brighter and the end of your tunnel a little lighter. This one thing is a good piece of music. There may be this one song that makes you stop right there and reflect upon your day and the path you have been walking. This song may revolve around everything you are going through, it may actually tell your story. Listening to it everything becomes clear and you finally know what you have to do: just breathe!

And then move on, one step after the other …

[wp_youtube]jPz3YaIJkjQ[/wp_youtube]