In January of 2019, during an office move, I had a supra ventricular tachycardia. My heart was suddenly beating above 200 beats per minute, I couldn’t breathe, and I was moments from collapse. I used my Apple Watch to take and ECG, and my colleague took me to the ER.

It was a fluke, but it could have just as easily been a health disaster. Many folks aren’t so lucky.

This week’s Apple event started with a piece of incredible storytelling, and I’d strongly encourage you to watch those four minutes without any further commentary. Just click through, watch those four minutes, and then I’ll tell what was going through my mind as I watched.

* * * *

Apple has long held that devices are personal, and private, and that they belong to the person who is using them, and as birthday greetings came into the devices on the screen, I remember how connected I am to a lot of people all over through the use of my device. iMessage is a great way to talk to friends all over the world, and so are all the other great messaging and calling apps that litter my phone.

My world is smaller because of my phone, and richer all at the same time. The Bridge Fam Grand Slam chat that has my parents and siblings in it is a source of incredible joy in my life, where I live thousands of miles from my relatives. I have internet friends all over the world — Mac Admins, Cloudmakers, IRC friends, Conference friends — and my access to them lives in my phone, and by extension, my Watch.

Apple’s new health and safety features over the last few years are protection we all didn’t know we needed. Crash detection in the phones can save lives. Emergency SOS for people who end up off the beaten path, or even just out for a road trip in parts of the world where cell coverage isn’t ubiquitous. Fall detection, heart-rate anomaly detection, arrhythmia detection.

And then it all hit me what I was seeing on screen. Birthdays. Moments where our own lives are marked by our friends and loved ones. It’s a big year for birthdays in the Bridge house. Charlie turns 10 in two weeks. I turn 45 in another two weeks after that.

Since that tachycardia, I’ve had three more birthdays. Charlie’s had three more birthdays. I’ve had three more anniversaries with my wife.

Things could’ve gone very differently.

Thanks, Apple, for the unexpected memories. And to many, many more to come.

And also? How very dare you make me feel all those feelings in the first five minutes of a corporate product launch. How very dare you indeed.