Itel It1501.
I remember the phone like the back of my hand. It was one of the most amazing experiences I had, returning from boarding school after my graduation ceremony to meet a small white and red carton waiting for me. My siblings were home from the university and my mom returned from work early just to present the gift to me.
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I remembered holding my palms to my mouth in shock, surprisingly, tears did not roll down my cheeks that afternoon. Instead, I was jumping up and down in excitement. My brother took the phone from me and helped me set it up. I remember that one of the first apps he downloaded was a notepad, he said writing on pen and paper could be quite cumbersome.
It took me some time to agree with him because I loved my pen and paper, but with time, I gradually began to adjust. Another app he downloaded was the VLC media player. My mother and I stayed up late after my WAEC exams to binge-watch Nigerian movies.
We would sit down during the day to discuss it when she was around and at night, we would settle down to watch the second part just after dinner.
Whenever my mother was not around, I would either watch the movies alone or go on Facebook. That was the only social media app that I could navigate, plus all my friends had Facebook accounts so we spent our time chatting well into the night.
When I finally got a teaching job, I used my phone to download rhymes and songs to teach the children in my class. The phone had a shiny metallic outlook but there was a transparent pouch over the back and whenever any child got hold of the phone, they went straight to the pouch. It was like they all had an agreement.
When that pouch broke beyond management, I had to get a new one. This one was plain black with just a ring behind, which I could hold the phone if I wanted.
I also remember that my mother had her own Samsung Galaxy phone but because there was no space on it, she preferred to download ‘Candy Crush’, ‘Temple Run’, ‘Subway Surf’, and ‘Cooking Fever games on my phone. My mother was a game freak. Whenever she was stressed from work and we didn't have a movie to see, she turned to her games.
She did that every single night before she slept.
I cannot forget that one of the best parts of that phone was its camera quality. With it, I took some killer pictures which some remain even to date. There were pictures of my mother and me, pictures of my friends, my students, and pictures of me.
I had a rich music library as well.
Every kind of music had a folder in my phone; gospel, secular, reggae. Whenever I was carrying out my usual house chores, I would be sure to play some music so I could do the chores faster. Sometimes, I even saw a movie while doing a chore, especially if that chore was going to take a lot of time. All I needed was to find a favorable spot around the house where I could sit and see my phone and I was good to go.
That phone was like a treasure to me and it lasted for 3 years before it finally packed up. When the phone was barely a year old, it fell into a bucket of water. I had to take it out immediately, open the entire phone, take out the battery, and dry it somewhere in my room.
Thankfully, it didn't develop any issues other than the charging port which I had to spend some extra money to repair. Then some time the following year, the screen broke and I had to get it fixed because it became blank.
That itel was one of the strongest phones I ever used, but eventually, the phone began to hang.
I did everything everyone asked me to do to get it to work normally again. First off I bought a memory card and transferred all my large files into it, then I deleted all the unnecessary apps on my phone and even began to use Facebook through Chrome, yet from time to time, I could barely get anything meaningful done on the phone.
I had to type a word and wait for it to come up on the screen for like a full minute before typing another word.
During that period, life became very difficult and I had to get a button phone to ease myself the stress of waiting for the itel to stop hanging before doing something meaningful. During the phone's last days, I went to remove every single document or file I had on it through a process called ‘flashing’. The phone became stable for about a week and just when I thought everything was going to be fine again, it suddenly packed up on me.
It went off one day and refused to come on. I did everything I could but it didn't budge. I was grateful that I had gotten a button phone and a memory card to preserve my contacts and pictures before the phone went bad.
I missed that phone for a long time because I had created so many memories with it.
This is my response to the question, "What is your first Phone?" Initiated by Indiaunited. You can follow the link to join.