I recently had one of my most prized possessions taken from me.
Something that now with perspective I realize I rely on for more aspects of my life than I could have known.
I lost my car keys. But I easily went to Home Depot and had duplicates made.
It was not the car keys that woke me in a state of anxiety Saturday morning, but my iPhone.
The point is not how I lost it-the point is I have tracked my missing beauty with the iCloud application for iPhone and have located a small dot, which in this case is a human, who currently roams around Thompson Street in Keene N.H. with a white iPhone 4s in a blue J. Crew phone case.
Well, I say the joke is on them, because the phone’s speaker sound has been ruined since a small Dining Commons lunch table accident and the power button no longer work after too much usage at the beach in Connecticut this summer. Besides, I have a new phone on the way.
But the point is not that I had my phone stolen from me, the point is, I have been living without a phone of any kind for the last five days—and I love it.
I anticipated anxiety and small panic attacks now and then when I couldn’t check my email, receive or send texts, or see who favorites my Tweet.
Turns out, I love not being in contact with the outside world. When people truly need to get a hold of me, they email me.
Or, in some cases that have happened, they literally come to my house and knock on my door. In the middle of a busy day I am no longer annoyed by an incoming text that just says “Hey.”
I have non-willingly cut out a lot of unnecessary conversations, notifications and ultimately annoyances from my life.
There have been some downsides: I have not talked to my family in several days, and no longer recieve breaking news updates which as a journalism student, I rely on.
I also think my friends are getting tired of having to make an extended effort to communicate with me regularly.
By the time this piece is published I will have a new iPhone and am sure I will be sucked back into the whirlwind life of an iPhone addict.
To my surprise, this addict has suffered little to none harsh withdrawal symptoms. Friends and family are shocked.
So for now, I take a deep breath and enjoy my vacation.
Julie Conlon can be contacted at jconlon@keene-equinox.com