My First Sony Experience Was With Something I Was Never Able to Buy

I was in Grade School when I asked my par­ents for the uber cool Sony Walk­man. I wanted to buy it partly because my class­mates had it, and my friends used it when they were out with me. I also wanted it because ever since I was young I loved to lis­ten to music; and what could be cooler than being able to carry music around and lis­ten­ing to it when­ever I wanted to? Even before peo­ple started call­ing some­thing COOL, I knew the Sony Walk­man was… some­thing I had to have.

My mom told me that my Ninang/Godmother will give me the Sony Walk­man. And it’ll be so much bet­ter than what my friends had because it’ll come from the States. (It was a time when being “imported” auto­mat­i­cally meant bet­ter). And so I waited with bated breath for that imported Sony Walk­man that was to come “from the States”.

I waited and waited. And in the mean­time, my friends and class­mates were lis­ten­ing to their Sony Walk­mans, nod­ding their heads, lip sync­ing to the songs and tap­ping their shoes to a beat only they could hear. I knew they were lis­ten­ing to Michael Jack­son, Depeche Mode, Cyndi Lau­per, or Madonna; but I wasn’t sure because only they heard it. They looked smugly at me, and I looked back at them with an equally smug look because I knew my own Sony Walk­man was going to arrive any day. I just had to wait.

Alas, the Sony Walk­man never came. I wasn’t bit­ter. I wasn’t angry. I didn’t blame any­body. I didn’t even cry (that would have been tacky). Rather it was a quick les­son in humil­ity and accep­tance. The Sony Walk­man became a sym­bol that not every­thing good you hope for can be yours, even if you wanted it so badly, because not every­thing is under your con­trol. I learned that some things in life you really have to wait for.

I grew up because I did not get my Sony Walkman.

Fast for­ward years later. I was in col­lege, and when I was home for Christ­mas, my mom brought me to the music store, and brought me a Sony Dis­c­man. I didn’t know if she remem­bered about the Sony Walk­man of long ago that never came; but the Sony Dis­c­man she bought for me did come as a sur­prise. And even if I was years older, I was like a kid all over again, nod­ding my head, lip sync­ing to songs, and tap­ping my shoes to a beat only I could hear. I finally got my Sony Walk­man fix with the Sony Discman.

I have learned my les­son. Not every­thing you want you’ll get. But just when you think life has for­got­ten you, some­thing else comes, and it’s so much bet­ter than you expect.

And although I’m not sure what lessons I’ll still learn in the future, the Sony Walk­man def­i­nitely gave sig­nif­i­cance in my life just like Sony’s World’s First Noise Can­cel­ing Portable Music Player.