Welcome to the future.

More than five years after Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone, I have made the upgrade.

My cell phone saga has been an uneventful journey. Like most kids my age, my brother and I got our first cell phones for Christmas in eighth grade. We got basic little flip phones under our parents’ Verizon Wireless plan. It wasn’t until we got our first upgrades when we were sophomores in high school that we got unlimited texting, a feature I had assumed we had until my mom lovingly dissipated that assumption after I texted a boy to the tune of $100 too much. After that, my cell phone story is dull. I don’t have any crazy stories about dropping my phone into cups of Gatorade or out of windows. The phones I had were always durable enough that when I did drop them under the bleachers at a sporting event, it came out unscathed.

Up until a couple weeks ago, I have had a total of two different phones since that first one I got for Christmas in 2004. The cotton candy blue flip Chocolate I retired had been through thick and thin with me for about three years. It came through my transition into college, my hectic days as campus editor at The Lantern, during which I would make no less than 10 calls and hundreds of texts a day, and even a stint abroad. But it was time to lay that phone to rest and enter into the Age of the iPhone.

It’s a whole new world. When I turned my phone on for the first time, I felt like that song from Disney’s “Aladdin” was going to start playing. I knew my new phone would open the flood gates to a constant stream of news, social media, apps, Internet access and connectivity. I can look up anything I want whenever I want. I can iChat with other people who have iPhones. I can tweet every thought that crosses my mind. I can constantly check Facebook. I can play games like Words With Friends and Draw Something, although I’m beginning to feel like I missed out on those phases as more exciting apps come along. When I finally got an iPhone, I felt like joined an elite club that took over America several years ago.

But some people are not amused with my excitement. They’ve had iPhones for years and are eagerly awaiting the next toy Apple releases. But they don’t know my scheme. First of all, my iPhone 4 (I decided not to get Siri and save my dad 100 bucks) only cost $99. There was a deal going on at Verizon, I think, and I got a heck of a deal. One of my coworkers said he paid about $500 for his new iPhone. Also, I waited until Apple worked out all the iPhone kinks. Obviously waiting five years was all part of my master plan. Finally, I don’t have to figure out any of the little tricks on my own. More of my friends and coworkers than not have iPhones and can share all the little intricacies and tips with me, acting as resources for any questions I might have. And there’s nothing all these people love more than telling me that you need to download the Facebook app rather than using Safari every time. Really, nothing they love more.

But all kidding aside, as an aspiring journalist, it has already proven to be a great tool. I can check my email whenever and quickly edit breaking news stories. I can shoot my own high-quality photos, video and audio with my phone. I have way more access to what is going on in the world.

I realize I’m being mocked when people welcome me and my phone to the future, but the future is now.

Maybe I’m a little behind the times, but that won’t make my new phone any less magical. So far, I haven’t found any glitches, although I still haven’t decided if I should keep the autocorrect on.