I’m going back to school, and I’m taking an incredibly gifted technical wizard with me as a guide and partner. It is never too late to learn. I am on fire to be better.

I’m tired of having an excellent desktop computer and not quite understanding how it works. I am tired of having a beautiful new Leica camera and settling for anything less than a perfect understanding of this beautiful machine.

I want to take photos that will knock some socks off. I’m not looking to be Annie Liebowitz, but I know I can do good work.

I’ve had Apple computers all of my life but never had to learn much about their inner workings of the many things they can do that I have been afraid to try. Apple’s tech support is so good, and the computer is so easy to use that you don’t need to peek under the hood or know what is there.

I just haven’t needed to learn much more than I know. I want to change that. I want to be my Tech Support and someone who knows how to make a great camera shine.

I learned about Mac Nurse a month or so ago when the company owner came over with a friend to visit us. He and I started talking, and I signed up. I had been waiting for someone like Perry to walk through that door for much of my life.

It was, I think, a miracle. I thought he might be an apparition.

I signed up. I so wish I had done this sooner, but I am even more excited about the chance to learn now. I did one session with him – he solved a dozen frustrating problems for me in minutes – and then asked if I minded working with a colleague named Andrew, who managed one of Mac Nurse’s offices. Perry is very busy.

I said sure. The Leica has awakened the creative spark in me, now a roaring flame. And Andrew and I fit like gloves.

I’ve always been a Steve Jobs admirer; he had people like me in mind when he developed the Imac and the Iphone. He liberated me from software.

His devices have made it possible for me to live in the country and share my writing and photos with the world. Because of him, I have nearly four million visits on my blog each year.

I could never have done this without Apple’s unique tools for people who don’t know how to use too many tools. And I have called them for Tech Support 1,000 times over the years. They never failed me once.

But I want to move along, grow, and challenge myself before my brain starts to calcify.

I want to learn everything there is to know about this camera. I want to take amazing photos and give them away for free to thank you for supporting me.

So I am launching a creative experience with Andrew, a gifted computer expert, and a patient, skilled, intuitive teacher.  Mac Nurse has two offices in Vermont. I doubt I will ever see either one of them.

The company provides virtual, physical, and telephone tech support for Apple Computer users who want to know more about their computers and who need help when something goes wrong.

I’ve been waiting for someone like Perry and Andrew for much of my life. Andrew has taught me more about using my computer creatively and efficiently in two weeks than I’ve learned in the last 40 years as an Apple computer user.

As a dyslexic and someone who has never learned anything about the mechanical side of the world, I’ve often found computing and software a struggle. I can master the simplest things, but no more.

I think Andrew can change that.  He already has.

He is a natural teacher, sensitive,  knowledgeable,  patient, and straightforward. When I was a child, teachers didn’t know about dyslexia, and many of them decided I was either problematic or stupid. Learning was never easy for me.

Andrew seems to know how to deal with this; he comes onto my computer and shows me how to move tabs around,  organize my browser, keep my computer clean, import my Leica photos, and organize my stock photos. He’s helped me understand how bookmarking works and how to re-label bookmarks in an elegant and accessible way.

So I got this new and, for me, quite a dramatic idea.

I sprung it on Andrew this afternoon; I was not at all sure how he would take it.

I offered it to him this afternoon as we finished our weekly tutorial for using my computer and figuring out how to link it to the Leica and transfer photos. Andrew has already saved me hours and eliminate a huge chunk of the fear dyslexia can cause on a complex computer.

I wish I had had a teacher like him when I was in school. But I’m not interested in moving backward. I’m ready to move ahead.

Here’s my proposal.

He and I will research the best photoshop editing system – I use LightRoom, one of the best  (but I am easily baffled there) – and when we agree on the software, our lessons will change. Andrew will enter my computer, which he does during all classes.

He is a computer and tech whiz but not a professional photographer; I am a professional photographer now (I sold a lot of stuff) but a software and tech idiot. We both are eager to learn.

So let’s do this together,  I said, I’ll pay.

Dyslexia can be crippling; it is a disorder that scrambles what you see and re-arranges words and images. In order not to look dumb, Dyslexic kids often pretend to understand when they don’t. Then, they do look stupid and soon feel that way.

I think Andrew can help. I owe it to Steve Jobs and my Leica, which is exactly the camera I dreamt it would be.

“Let’s take on the best photo editing system, go on it together every week, and learn it together” was my opener. He seemed taken aback.

Andrew is one of those people who figure tech out. He will see things I don’t see and open doors and windows I don’t know how to access. He is eager to learn sophisticated technology, and he knows how to organize and transfer my pictures.

I get the best end of the deal: to learn how to make the best of my new camera, a tool that could help transform my photography, support my blog, and spur some creative growth.  This is my way of staying young while accepting getting older. I think staying creatively active in this way is the healthiest thing I could do.

I want to be as good as I can be and never rest on my laurels. I want to learn everything I can remember. More than any teacher I’ve had, Andrew, who is in his early 20’s,  figured me out in minutes. How curious is that?

And I never have to pretend I understand something when I don’t. What a difference that makes.

He senses when I am tightening up, getting distracted, or forgetting what I just learned.

We go over it repeatedly until I get it, and then we go over it some more.

If he senses me struggling, he proposes an easier way. This is a kind of creative rebirth for me; I never want to get stale or so in a rut I can’t try something new.

So on October 4th, two days before my foot surgery, we will begin this new journey together, a brilliant young man who loves to teach computing, an easily confused older man who is open to help and wants to break some new ground.

“We can be like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” I told Andrew. Later, I thought perhaps Lewis and Clark would be a better analogy.

Andrew, who is honest, and who I probably will never meet in person, went to great pains to make sure I understood that he wasn’t an expert in photo software. “That’s okay,” I said, “well-learn together, and you’ll get paid for it.”

I told Andrew I didn’t have decades to learn all this, not to be morbid, but realistic. I’m ready to get serious. He gets it.