“Where we are going there will be no 4G and no Wi-Fi.” The phrase that sends shivers down the spines of nearly all of our generation. I will say it again. No 4G. And no Wi-Fi. I am sure someone somewhere reading this just had a mini heart attack and kneeled over, wondering how it is possible to live on this earth without being connected all the time.
Monday morning, my little nugget of a sister and I headed out with our parental units for 3 days in the wilderness armed with nothing but camping supplies, phones that would do nothing but tell us the time, and a GoPro to record life's finer moments. Thus we have 2 girls, and a GoPro.
This article is not to brag about my awesome trip (which was AMAZING) but to inform you of how my time on the Olympic Peninsula changed my life.
You see, I’ve been 3,000 miles away from home for the last year and at college I am always connected. I am surrounded by people and craziness and noise all the time. And it has become the norm in my life.
But while I was sitting on the beach with my little sister that I hardly ever get to see, and we were trying to get pictures of EVERYTHING on this GoPro to remember how perfect it was, I found myself distracted because I was thinking about how my phone had a solid zero bars. And this pissed me off because I was in a perfect place, with my best friend, and I should have been living in that moment.
See the perfect little nugget in the hat? That's my darling little sister.
We as a generation have become so obsessed with the constant connection to everything else around us. We worry about status updates and likes and shares and texts and we are losing the ability to live in the real world.
I missed out on quality time on this trip with my sister, whom I love so much, while worrying about my lack of service and I refuse to let this constant need for connection drive my life any more. I need to live for the moment I’m in now, and not the one that was updated on Facebook 47 minutes ago.
So not only was this trip one for the books because of all the grand adventures that occurred, but it was a solid realization that I need to get my priorities straightened out. As I was sitting on a rock stack on Kalaloch Beach thinking about life and watching the otters play in the waves, it really hit me that life is too short. And do I want to be remembered as the girl who lived life with her nose glued to the screen? No! I want to live a life full of adventure and fun and I want to worry about the things that matter. Because, in the end, will I remember how many shares I got on status x? Probably not. But I will always remember the adventures and the memories and the time I spend with the people I love.
