I believe our generation relies on technology too much. Almost everything in our daily lives now revolves around it. From looking at your grades to things as simple as scrolling through your instagram feed, our entire worlds seems to come crashing down as soon as something is temporarily unavailable. Last year during the state writing test my phone was taken away and I didn’t get it back until the end of that week.

My seat was in the very front of the class, so I should have been more sneaky about using my phone, but I had gotten more lazy about it since the beginning of the year. We’d been there for about 45 minutes and I still didn’t know which prompt to write on. I decided I would just think it over that night and be ready to crank out an entire essay out tomorrow. Since I had given up on trying to get anything done, I pulled my phone out and started texting people. After I was a little too obvious about it a few too many times, Mrs. G stood up from her desk and without a word crossed the short distance from where she was sitting to my desk. She held her hand out and we had a mutual understanding that I should give her my phone or it would result in me getting a referral for insubordination. I would’ve rather picked the later had I known the first option would result in my phone being held in the office for the remainder of the week.

The rest of that day I had an unsettling feeling in my stomach, like a part of me was missing. That or I was scared my dad would be mad, either way it was unpleasant. I got home and avoided bringing the issue up for a while, but I knew if I ever wanted my phone back I’d have to tell him eventually. I trudged out of my room and hesitantly spoke. “I got my phone taken away at school and you have to go get it from the office.” My dad’s ice blue eyed gazed at me in annoyance and he sighed. He didn’t ask how or why, he just gave me a little lecture about staying off my phone in class, which ended with “I’ll go get it on my way up to Tillamook on Friday.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Today was Tuesday. How was I going to survive the rest of the week without my phone?

One of the worst things about not having my phone was not being able to listen to music. Riding the bus in the morning was the worst part about not having my music. It was too early and for some reason everyone else on the bus was already wide awake and screaming to their friends across the bus. I didn’t really mind not being able to use Twitter or Snapchat for a few days, but I definitely noticed all the little things I use my phone for constantly that I don’t really notice, like to google definitions of words. “What’s anachronistic mean?” Krisha inquired. “I’d be able to look it up and tell you, but I don’t have my phone”, I complained. I also use my phone as my alarm every morning so I had to program my iHome instead.

When my dad pulled up to the school in his dark grey Ford truck. I was sitting in the galley eating lunch with my friends. I hopped up and ran to the front door to greet him. “You should take me home with you after you get my phone.” He just laughed and shook his head. We walked up the stairs and I stood outside the office while he went in and got my phone. I’m assuming they told him about how I got it taken away during the state writing test, which could have compromised everyones tests, because he gave me another lecture before finally handing my phone back. I got back to the galley and I looked at all the notifications I had. I realized I didn’t even really care to reply to any of the texts or open any of the snaps I’d gotten, and honestly, it felt good.

If you take the time to take a step back, or in my case are forced to, you realize just how much our generation relies on technology and that taking a break from it can give you a whole new perspective. It’s supposed to make lives easier, we’re not supposed to depend on it.