Text. Gotta send that text. Facebook, I've got to connect. Grindr, Tinder who wants my body? Back to Facebook, would you look at that post? He is always posting selifes of himself, how pathetic. Wow look at that! She has been all over the world, I wish that could be me. Instagram, what should I post today... Should I post? No. Not today, but scroll, oh how I love to scroll. Text, let's check that those texts again. No new messages? How could that be, I just checked it five minutes ago, someone's bound to have to tell me something. Snapchat, I've got to send that Snap. Snap, Snap, Snap. Text, back to the text, let me send a message, look at this empire in my inbox, I have so many messages, I have so many messages, I just- STOP!
Whew, how exhausting. Just the thought of a phone gets my mind racing. Look at it though, it's right next to you isn't it? You should check it.
That was my life. I loved my phone, everything about it. I could capture and image and communicate with the world so easily. It was what I needed, it helped me get through the day. Without it I would have surely died. Yet, I didn't die. In fact, I started living.
It was a blessing and a curse, that day, that fateful day when it was taken from me. My entire life in one little expensive devise was stolen, she robbed me blind. At first I hated her, how could she do this to me? Then something happened. I found myself thanking her. She may not know this now, or ever for that matter. I was just some idiot tourist to her, but she changed my life for the better.
The the days after losing my beloved phone I started looking at the world in a different light, one that wasn't photoshopped or cropped into how I wanted to see it, but for what it actually was, or should I say, is. I was forced to observe the scenery around me with nothing more than my own two eyes. No crutches, no distractions other than the guy falling face first into a pile of sand which was hilarious by the way. I was also subjected to being the only one at the dinner table who watched friends who were attached to their phones, those friends who briefly forgot that I even existed.
I love the fact that I will walk onto the street and watch people staring down at their screens and know that I have escaped from it, a humbling feeling. I feel as though I used my phone as a shield, a shield from having to find other ways of entertaining myself, a way to ignore the thoughts that wanted to be noticed.
The last thing I want is for people to think that having a phone is a bad thing because it's not, it's a wonderful thing, but what we forget is how important it is to put the phone down for awhile. Release yourself into the world that is a little less digital because there are opportunities right beside you that are passing you by. All because that phone has you its clutches.
The months that I have lived without a phone has opened me up to the world and to myself. I have had time to ponder what I truly want from life which is more than I have felt in a very long time. Rather than living vicariously through others, I have to live for myself. I've had to make small talk with a stranger at the bar, and think more realistically about me and who I want to be. I can't say that I've discovered myself one hundred percent, but damn it, I'm getting close.
Take a challenge for me will you? If not for me, do it for yourself and you can thank me later, or hate me. Choose one. Forget your phone for just one day. Put it on silent and leave it at the bottom of your bag or on your bed. Go out and sit down at a cafe with nothing more than a couple of bucks and an open mind. Who knows, you might find something about yourself that can't be discovered by an app on your phone. This is you, this is the real you and you are capable of being everything that you want to be. The first step to making that happen is to be you, appreciate you, and leave behind that message you want people to remember when you're gone. Which I can tell you now is not a phone full of lol's and deleted Snapchats.
Like I've already said, I'm searching for myself and am well on my way of releasing all the negative energies that used to consume my life. Honestly, losing my phone was one of the best ways to help me do that.
So do it, a one day challenge.You might rediscover a world you forgot existed.
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