by Barbara Besteni

Created on: August 04, 2008

When it was time for God to hand out the gene that instinctively knows how to troubleshoot anything that has to do with computers, or techy stuff' as my friends call it, I apparently stood in line twice.

I'm blessed with a knack for understanding and fixing technical issues that most people would gladly hand over thousands of dollars worth of their hard-earned money to have someone else fix for them.

This, however, is not my chosen profession - which is a polite way of saying I don't get paid to dole out the technical talents with which I've been blessed.

But I believe that blessings come with a responsibility to help others a responsibility that, in my case, often demands a lot of requests for technical pro bono work.

Case in point a week in my recent history.

I had barely walked into the office one morning when one of my favorite coworkers walked up to me and said "Barb, I've been meaning to ask you this for days. And if I don't ask you now, I'll forget. What should I use to back up my computer system at home?"

I gave him a detailed answer which would have sent him into Geek Squad bankruptcy and went about my day, knowing that not only had I helped him, I had done so by giving away a gift meant to be shared with someone else.

I am blessed to know this stuff.

A few hours later, a friend called to ask for my help setting up his E-mail account. This one really threw me for a loop because my friend is a fighter pilot who flew missions over Iraq during the war.

"You're kidding," I said, humbled by the fact that this person who I have admired and respected for so long would need my help doing something as simple as setting up an E-mail account.

"I know how to fly planes," he said. "But I know nothing about this computer."

I am blessed to know this stuff.

A couple of days later, I went to visit another friend at work who was trying to get a signal from her company's in-house video system into a monitor at her desk. The tech support team said it was impossible.

Now, I'm not an engineer, nor do I play one on TV, but something told me that if I took the stray cable on the floor and connected it to the back of her monitor, it would work.

It did.

I am blessed to know this stuff.

That same week, my dad needed help setting up his high-speed internet account. This is the same man who had the answers to everything while I was growing up the man who has gotten me out of more binds than I care to mention.

But something as simple as setting up the IP address to his Internet provider left him at edge of technical chaos.

I am blessed to know this stuff.

A few days later a friend asked me to fix the wireless connection to her laptop (a connection for which the technical support team at her office couldn't fix).

I spent hours troubleshooting, researching and fixing the problem.

"You're a genius," she said when I got it to work.

No, I'm not. I'm just blessed to know this stuff.

Now, as far as my bank account is concerned, none of the things I've shared with you in this article ever happened.

But I'm blessed to know this stuff. And helping others with that knowledge is payment enough.

Think about that next time someone asks you to do something you're good at but for which you don't get paid.

Don't complain. Give thanks.

Because I'm blessed, but so are you.

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