No data. No wifi. No cell reception for more than a mile.
That's the reality when you vacation in the Canadian countryside. Which of course sounds like a weird place to vacation, since Canada is always thought of as cold. But when you only go as far as Ontario, the whether is pretty much the same as it is in the northeastern United Sates.
No matter who you are, vacation is a time to take a break from your typical life. However, few people take this mentality to heart to the point of totally disconnecting from that typical life.
In recent years, we've become attached to our cell phones literally by the hip. We're so used to always being connected, we seldom stop to realize that this ever present connection is a form of chain.
Don't get me wrong; I have no problem with cell phones. I think they're great tools that can help people do amazing things, including staying close to those friends and family members we don't see everyday. And with apps like Snapchat and Instagram, we can share funny moments at the touch of a button.
But we can also share bad news. We can share our heart breaks and insecurities and all those other things we used to keep to ourselves so much more freely thanks to the false barrier the screen of our phone provides.
It is easy to vent using any one of the many apps or features cell phones offer. I know I have. So I also know that it is easy to forget that there is a real human being who cares about you reading those texts. So be careful not to blow things out of proportion. Because if they're an anxious human like I am, they'll worry about you out of proportion.
That's why, after a semester during which it seemed something disastrous happened to at least one of my friends every week, I was anxious about being completely unreachable. But when you go into Canada, there are no Verizon towers nearby. Meaning no data unless you're willing to face all those fees. And if you're vacationing in the countryside, there's no cell reception at all for miles. And the cottage you rent? Yeah, it doesn't come with wifi.
All I could do was warn my friends that they wouldn't be able to reach the "therapist" of the group, send one final snap to my best friends' and my 84 day streak, and trust that everything was going to be ok in my absence.
And guess what? It was. Turns out my friends don't actually need me to hold them together. And taking a break from constant connection made me realize that I try to keep a finger on the pulses of my friends' lives more than I have any right to.
I may be the therapist of the group, but that doesn't mean I'm in charge of making sure everyone is ok. They're as adult as I am. They can look out for themselves.
My friends, for the most part, already do this. Any venting they do isn't meant to stress me out, and it isn't usually them asking me to fix their problems. But it took me a week away to even realize that that's how I was responding.
After the first couple days of having to remind myself that I was not allowed to worry about my friends, I began to really enjoy my phone free vacation.
I didn't even miss social media.
Ok, except for Snapchat.
But I definitely didn't miss the amount of time checking and updating social media takes out of my day. I never realized just how much time I spend on my phone until I spent a week without it.
Without the urge to check my phone every five minutes, I had more time for reading, and other things I enjoy. And without the constant distraction it provides, I had more time for introspection.
I'm not one who usually enjoys thinking about themselves or their life, but after that semester from heck, this actually proved to be helpful. I now feel like I know why I got so stressed out last semester, and that I have a plan to avoid doing the same thing this semester.
Despite my initial unease, a phone free week turned out to be exactly what I needed. I wouldn't want to live like that all the time, but I'm already looking forward to doing it again next year.
It's worth taking some time to disconnect. It's freeing to know that the world won't stop spinning without your input. It's eye opening to realize just how much time you spend on your phone everyday.
A phone should never be a shackle on your time, or your happiness. A phone is a tool. One made to help us do almost everything better.
Make sure your phone is making your life better. Not worse.
