I’m sitting on the couch next to my grandma trying not to yank my hair out. She just got a new iPad and has no idea how to set it up. Questions keep popping up everywhere, apps keep asking her to re-enter all her passwords, and I keep sitting there questioning my patience. How could I be a good granddaughter and not help my struggling grandma? If I didn’t help her now, I'd be heavily hearing from her throughout the week complaining about something not working.

My grandma just turned 76 and we bought her an iPad. She was ecstatic to have a bigger screen to scroll through facebook on. Technology wasn’t as advanced when my grandma was growing up; she was mesmerized with fingerprint ID, high definition cameras, access to the internet at her fingertips, and all of the incredible features she could now use. Of course, I had to teach her how to use the new features because she had no idea. Life had taught her many lessons, but it didn’t teach her how to press a button without holding it for too long otherwise, Siri would activate. Sometimes it felt like I was trying to teach a toddler to walk.

As I booted up the iPad, I sat right next to her on the couch so she could watch what I was doing. The setting up the iPad wasn’t the hard part. It got frustrating when we tried to log her into her accounts. I opened up facebook and of course, it expected her to remember her login information. 

“It’s asking you for your facebook password. Do you remember what it is?” I asked, crossing my fingers in hopes that she would. 

“No, I've never had to log in to facebook its always been there when I open it” she replied with a puzzled look on her face.

My grandma never remembered her passwords and I never understood why she never wrote them down. I asked her to list all the possible passwords she could think of but as I typed them in, they all came back with the irritating INCORRECT PASSWORD pop up. As I squirmed in my seat, I moved on to try and reset the password. I inserted her email which I thought was registered to her account and proceeded to send a verification code. I anxiously waited for what felt like forever, but a code never came no matter how many times I pushed the resend button. I was becoming short-tempered and all I wanted was for my grandma to be able to use her stupid app. I was irritated. I was annoyed. I was about ready to give up. 

I grabbed her phone and started going through her Facebook settings, I noticed that her account wasn’t even registered with that email anymore. A couple of years ago we had made her a new account and it clicked that we tried to sign in to the wrong account. Eager to get it working, I tried to reset the password through her phone. I sent the verification code and a moment later her phone lit up. I jumped off the couch with excitement. I handed the iPad to my grandma and had her type in a new password. I jotted down the password in multiple places where she would remember. Relieved I had solved this agonizing problem, I now I sat next to my excited grandma on the couch, and I watched as she scrolled through Facebook on her new large screen. 

I have always struggled with patience in my life. I enjoy the accomplished feeling of solving a problem, but I need to accept that it takes failing before a solution is found. Solving problems doesn't always happen right away, trial and error are what make us human. Being patient with myself and others is the key to my success in the future.