I feel like iPads have become synonymous with the idea of people who just have their life all figured out. People who have zero issues in the world. They’re just living life and using iPads and being completely perfect at all things school. However, before you completely dismiss the idea of the iPad as being useless or convoluted or pretentious, I would like you to consider the following:
It genuinely changed my life. I’m not kidding.
Why did I buy an iPad in the First Place?
I’m an obsessive note-taker. I used to just try and buy any cool notebook I saw in my face. My favorite gift that I got on my 16th birthday was from my uncle and it was a bunch of notebooks. I still have them all to this day and some of them stand empty because they’re too pretty to mess with.
However, I learned a harsh lesson from my note-taking habits. Between school, typing, writing, and other activities like gaming and physical activity, I quickly found my hands in a situation where they couldn’t function like they used to.
The pain really started when I was in ninth grade and was taking my first AP class. I recall that it was AP World History and I loved the class. I to this day really loved it for helping me learn more about my favorite subject in school and growing a bigger passion for it in storytelling. However, the amount of notes and essays I wrote in preparation for the AP exam began to take a toll.
In high school, a lot of things were done on paper and in notebooks until really the last year I was there (which was my junior year, because I graduated early) when my teachers started introducing us to more activities requiring laptops and all that. I had this pretty crappy laptop at the time that I have since replaced. However, I typed way too much on it that you could tell which keys I butchered the most on that poor laptop’s keyboard. Between that and continuing to write, and my hobby of coloring and drawing, I was beginning to wear out my fingers and wrists.
I didn’t practice proper ergonomics when it came to typing and didn’t really have proper posture either, mostly because I didn’t think any of that mattered. Plus, I unfortunately had a really crappy chair on my desk for years until I moved out and started making big girl purchases and got myself a real chair. So, I basically had a pretty bad environment for typing and doing the things that I love to do.
This created the beginning of what would become pretty much chronic hand pain and nerve issues that I will unfortunately deal with for the rest of my life. Afterwards, I’d go on to unfortunately further injure my hands in some accidents, so I was set for hand pain forever.
Enter University
Alright, so I was in university at the young age of 17. At the time, I was studying at the University of Ottawa and I was taking notes on both my laptop and paper, depending on the course. However, I was under immense pressure to get really good grades because I thought I wanted to go to med school (I never really wanted to, I just said that to avoid getting lengthy lectures that I don’t pay attention to anyways).
So, I continued to wear my hands out and my apartment that I was living in had pretty crappy office chairs that felt more like wooden planks. So, I studied on my bed most of the time and that didn’t exactly create any good ergonomics practices either.
Basically, the hand pain didn’t get any better. Despite all the exercises and attempts I made to rectify the damage, it continued onward.
Along Came the iPad
Although I owned a Wacom Intuos drawing tablet–which I briefly used in note taking as well–I needed something with less friction between the pen and surface. So, I remembered my trips to the Apple store where I got the fortunate experience of trying the Apple Pencil on an iPad screen.
By then, I was 18 and I was really in a tough spot with my hand’s health. I could barely go through a page of notes without feeling like my wrist was about to snap in half. That was when I decided to actually start complaining to my mom about it, because I really couldn’t just brush it off anymore.
So, my mom and I decided that the best course of action was to try a different strategy out when it came to taking notes. That was when I got my first iPad since I owned the iPad mini as a kid. I got the 11-inch iPad Air in Rose Gold with the 2nd Generation Apple Pencil.
I have not been able to go back to paper since.
The relief I got from the note-taking experience was absolutely phenomenal. I could actually take notes for extended periods of time without feeling like I was in excruciating pain. I actually felt free for once with hand writing. I also invested in a setup for my iPad and got an iPad stand, keyboard, and mouse. I felt excited with my newfound buddy and was able to do so much more with it.
Firstly, the diverse types of notes I could take was amazing. Not only that, but I could continue to enjoy art while keeping my hands feeling better. I had more enjoyment when it came to handwriting and I didn’t invest in a screen protector because the smoothness of the writing allowed for my hand to glide much better.
It is seriously one of the greatest things I have ever purchased. It has helped me in ways I could never imagine. Now, I can’t think of going back to using a regular ol’ notebook for school.
Hopefully you see why the iPad is more than just a pretty device: It has been a therapeutic dream for a person with chronic pain like me!
I’m 19 now, so I’ve been using it for a little over a year and it has done wonders for me. I even let my siblings use it for art and graphic design. It’s not just a great investment for school, but for life as well. Seriously, if you’re thinking of getting one, DO IT! You will not regret it for a second!
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Buy the Apple Pencil here:
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