A college girl and an iPhone. They are like peanut butter and jelly, bread and butter, pencil and paper. A college girl and her iPhone are practically inseparable. At least that is what most people think.
I am someone who always jokes about throwing my phone away whether that be tweeting “I want to throw my phone off of the tallest dorm building” or just talking about switching to a flip phone. Little did I know that at the beginning of February, I would involuntarily get rid of my phone.
It was a regular Thursday night in February and my friends and I had just finished up eating in Jack Kane and were heading to go rock climbing at the Wabasha Recreation Center. The group of us going climbing was made up of myself, Shannon, Clara, Morgan, and Dane. We all shoved into Dane’s car. Shannon and Dane sat in the front, and Morgan, Clara, and I sat in the back.
We all went climbing and everything was fine. At least that is what I thought. I am not someone who checks my phone often and I did not have the urge in the hour and a half we were there.
On the way out I decided, “Hey, it might be time I check and see if my Mom has texted me yet.”
I reached into my pocket only to find a mitten and a Jolly Rancher wrapper. No phone.
I checked my other pocket where there was only a mitten and my keys. No phone.
Backpack main pocket: nothing.
Backpack side pockets: nothing.
Dane’s car: nothing.
Dining hall: nothing.
Sidewalk: nothing.
My phone was gone and I had to accept it. As much as I joked about wanting to get rid of it, I wanted to get rid of it in a dramatic way. I did not just want to lose it.
I lived my life Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday without my phone with no connection besides my laptop when I had WiFi and had Facebook open. It was different but I learned a lot from my experience.
1. I was a lot more observant.
Waiting for the shuttle that takes me from my dormitory to my classes felt like a nightmare the first time I had to do it without my phone. I sat there twiddling my thumbs and scanning my eyes across the room. As soon as they got on the bus, everyone around me pulled out their phones and started scrolling through the latests Tweets and Snapchats.
2. Eating in the cafeteria was awkward.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of sitting and chatting with my friends while I eat. Generally speaking when there is a lull in the conversation everyone unconsciously reaches down for their phone only to refresh the app they were previously using. I realized this and became truly conscious of it. I again sat there aimlessly staring off into space or trying to talk to people that were too involved sending a Snapchat to that cute boy from science.
4. I did miss out on plans.
The weekend that I lost my phone was the weekend of the Frozen River Film Festival in Winona. My friends were all trying to plan which movies they were wanting to go to and where we wanted to meet. I felt like I was always scrambling to try to figure out the plan and I never knew exactly what was happening or where people were because once I left my dorm, I did not get updates. If I did not have my laptop, Facebook, and a WiFi connection, I was out of luck. I just had to hope we either kept the same plan or I bumped into someone that told me it had changed.
5. I was able to explore my surroundings.
During the weekend that I did not have my phone, I had my best friend from high school and her friend from college come visit from University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Instead of sitting in my dorm all day we went out and did stuff. We took a driving tour of Winona that I facilitated, went to Garvin Heights, and chatted over the buffet at Pizza Hut. My technology-free weekend let me catch up with my old friend and her new one and learn so much more than I probably would have with my cell phone in hand.
6. Good is still out there.
By Sunday night I was convinced that someone had actually stolen my phone and that I did not lose it. I went everywhere I had been to since dinner on that Thursday and even dug through snow banks looking for it. My outlook on the situation was grim and I had already filed a case with my phone insurance for my missing phone so that I could get a replacement. That was until my friend Clara, who I had listed as the emergency contact for my lost phone, got a call. Her screen popped up with my name on it and she picked up. But it was not me; instead, it was a random guy telling her that he had found my phone in a snowbank along Huff St. I was overjoyed and able to pick up the phone after my radio show on Sunday. I realized that there is still good out there and that no one actually stole my phone (that I know of) and that someone was kind enough to bring it back to me.