It was a Wednesday evening and the sun was just beginning to set. As I trudged slowly back to my dorm room, the brisk air berating my features, I numbly began to piece together my feeble plan of action. I had a proposal due, a big one, for the final paper of the semester. I had just left a tense meeting with my professor where I had, supposedly, decided on a topic to write. I was, to say the least, uncertain. But, for all intents and purposes, I had commenced on my journey into the land of “Finals,” a dreadful place full of misery and anxiety. As I made my way into my small room, I hastily removed my backpack. From it I withdrew my laptop and began to mentally prepare myself for the intensive work I was soon to begin. I opened the lid and, to my horror, my laptop displayed merely a black screen littered with increasingly threatening white lettering. It had crashed. I immediately called my brother. I might be the equivalent to a headless chicken when it came to technical knowledge, but he was not; surely he could do something. I was wrong.

My laptop was, as far as I was concerned, dead. And I, in the middle of the already looming stress of upcoming finals and momentous decisions, was left without a lifeline to depend. I quickly spiraled into despair. How could I, with little more than a few sheets of notebook paper, a pencil, and a can-do attitude, even begin to complete such a daunting task. And, then, it struck me. What was I getting so flustered about, anyway? It wasn’t as if this was, in the history of the universe, the first time I had ever worked without technology. I needed to buckle down and get things done. With this new motivation (and a pep talk from my mom) I was able to finish writing my proposal, on notebook paper.

Now, as you can probably tell (as this article is on the Internet), my computer issues have been resolved. But, my experience with technical difficulties will stay with me forever. Those few hours without my computer revealed to me the truth behind my own life. Somehow, over the course of several years, I have started to become wholly dependent upon technology. And, I don’t just mean to complete school work or turn in assignments. My computer is everything to me. It is how I communicate with the world, how I express myself. It has become part of my very soul. Without my computer I was thrown into utter disarray. I knew that I needed to calm down and finish my work but the only means with which I knew to relax was my computer. Technology is, whether I like it or not, a huge portion of today’s society. Life, in general, is interdependent upon the constant ebb and flow of technical advances. But, sitting alone in my darkening dorm room, I came to a conclusion: technology may be an integral part of my life, but I refuse to let it define me. I will, somehow, endeavor to change myself from here on out. I can’t afford to be so dependent on machinery for, as my laptop has proven, it will not always be around to support me. I have to be strong enough as a person to stand on my own two feet and persevere, technology or no technology.