On Monday, my family packed up and buckled up for our trip to Long Lake in the Adirondacks. We brought a minimal amount of things. I, with only one tote bag, felt accomplished. I also made sure to bring a bunch of books that I thought I would have enough time to read. These included Gone Girl, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Beautiful and Damned, and, last but not least, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (my favorite).
We started our trip off by going to a local diner and getting dinner. I got myself some shrimp and fries, hoping the food wouldn't be bland and lackluster. We were all blissfully surprised when our food was delicious and glad we had a nice place to eat a couple meals while we were around. The day ended pretty quickly as it was the first, we had arrived late, and we were tired. So, after getting a good night's sleep, we expected a thunderstorm the next day.
Luckily, it didn't rain, and we got to drive around to some other towns, such as Inlet and enjoyed our day getting know the areas around the Adirondacks. We played card games when we got back, drank coffee, and overall, just relaxed. It was nice not having to worry about anything and also having a nice cabin to enjoy, keeping all the bugs out and allowing for us to get through one camping trip without getting eaten alive.
Wednesday was the day I was looking forward to the most because it was the day we were going to go pick up our rented boat from the marina. One thing about me, I love the water. I love lakes, and I love boating. Most of all, I love swimming. Being out on the water is one of the most calming things in the world and I couldn't wait to be out there.
Obviously, I wasn't the only one excited. We got up early only to realize we all had a text from our phone carrier. 90% of our cellular data had been used up...by none other than my brother. As he used up a scathing amount of 7 gigabits out of 11, the rest of my family used under 1, and I used 2.5. Now, this may not seem all that awful except for the fact that we were only three days into the new cycle.
Being in the middle of the Adirondacks, we had no wifi, and so, we were forced to enjoy our time in the Adirondacks without our phones always on. This lets me appreciate our time in the mountains and with each other even more. I had nothing distracting me or keeping me from living in the moment. I felt free and unencumbered from social media.
It was shocking to me because I'm not even all that caught up in social media in the first place. Sure, I love Snapchat, but only have a couple people I actually snap. And the rest is just some occasional surfing to keep up with my friends. I don't find myself needing to document every second of my life, and yet I still found myself realizing I was on my phone too much.
