This was my view on the final morning of my camping trip; superb isn’t it. While many of my fellow campers were sleeping in tents, I was enjoying the sunrise from my equally colorful hammock. If you had told me a few years ago that I would be spending the weekend sleeping outside with no wifi and the closest bathroom a three-minute walk away, I would have laughed. “Camping! Me? I don’t think so!”
Yet here I am missing the sent of pine brought in by a southern breeze. I recently joined the UA Outdoor Adventure Club and went on a car camping trip. At first, I thought I would be sleeping in my car, turns out car camping just mean driving to your base camp rather than carrying everything on your back. And I had an AMAZING time. I met new people, made smores, swam in the lack, and did something that I realize is hard to do on campus. Relaxed. Not playing on my phone while laying in my bed relaxing, but really just being in a moment.
Image Credit: Ann Marie Young
I am the first to admit I am addicted to my phone; I love the thing what can I say. Its constant updates, call, text, and GroupMe (it smells like GroupMe ever shuts up) all fuel my need to constantly be doing something. However, this weekend I had no reception and not like 4G reception like my phone said “not service: reception. My phone was left in my bag for most of the trip never making a noise sitting silently away for my train of thought. And guess what? I didn’t even notice it lack of buzzing until the trip was over and I got service back.
Ever since I got back to campus I am increasingly aware of just how much stress technology causes us. Everything is immediate. This email needs to be replied to immediately, this text needs to be answered now, phone calls made this instant, and social media updated. It’s all so much and it never stops.
But for a few hours of my life, I got to watch the sunrise snuggled up in a blank with only the gentle hum of cicadas in the background.