Bernadette Benda

About two weeks ago, it was Sunday. The last day of the ballet (Sleeping Beauty). I was walking into the theater, arms full (over-stuffed backpack, over sized water bottle, lunch bag…) with my phone in hand.

I dropped said phone on the cement. On the cement, face down.

The screen cracked, but not only did it crack, but it completely BUSTED the screen. I got weird flashy lines and I couldn’t so much as put my pass code in.

Welp, there goes my phone.

I didn’t get it fixed till the next Sunday/Monday (which was a drama in and of itself but let’s not get into that. All I can say is BACK UP YOUR PHONE. Also, don’t fool around with iCloud. It will start a catastrophic chain of events that results with fell beasts coming from the clouds and eating all you hold dear.) So, for a week I lived like our ancestors used did: with no phone.

In fact, how I used to live until I was in high school. For more than half my life.

Now, some of you may be cringing in your seats or right now searching the webs for protective cases for your phone but…part of me actually really liked it.

The big downsides were that I had no alarm (which means people have to wake me up or I get an old fashioned alarm clock), AND NO MUSIC. NO HANS ZIMMER BLASTING OR THE BEATLES FROM THE ROLLED DOWN WINDOWS OF THE CAR.

NO MR. BLUE SKY

But on the UPSIDE:

• I wasn’t checking my email for no apparent reason except because my food was in the microwave
• couldn’t look at my phone before bed
• didn’t scroll through instagram or whatever because I was bored
• in fact never really felt bored? I mean there were a few times I wanted to look at my phone to take up time, but really? Didn’t miss it.
• it made me take a break as I couldn’t call or text anyone and couldn’t answer emails on the spot.

I really learned what I liked about having a phone (music, an alarm, the news, and the ability to look stuff up), and what I can totally live without having at the tips of my fingers (email, facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest).

Also I couldn’t call anyone so that was a good excuse for my introvert self.

I would like to say that I read more, meaning that I didn’t have my phone to entertain myself so I picked up a book. No, I just kinda…stared into space more??? Which is really nice to do sometimes?? Especially driving on the road (I’m not when I’m driving. That be bad).

Though I did read a book about animation and Disney’s beginnings, and that was cool. (Hand drawn animation is crazy hard and we all need to have more respect for it).

So that’s it. That the exciting week I had without my phone, which ended up being a very relaxing week.

What about you? Think you could make it? What would you miss most?

Photo by Benjaminrobyn Jespersen on Unsplash