It is approximately two days since I lost my phone (and credit card) at the Amsterdam International Airport. After walking up and down what seemed to be the largest, and possibly the worst airport to lose my phone in, I eventually gave up, filed a half-hearted claim, and hopped on my flight to Manchester.

Now, I don’t mean to sound Luddite-ish, and really, it’s more of me trying to soothe my own wounded pride, but I think it happened for a reason. Fate, as one might call it (“It was meant to happen” — my grandmother). My cracked-up Samsung is floating around somewhere in Amsterdam with my credit card in tow (although it’s more or less a piece of plastic at this point), and I am credit-card less and phone-less in England in the midst of freezing-cold weather, so really, I was expecting this entire situation to be absolutely terrible.

Plot twist! It isn’t.

I love technology, but I admit in entirety that it does cause me to be a little less social than I would otherwise be. It is just a fact, and once I get my new phone, this article will hopefully serve as a reminder.

After losing my phone, I boarded a tiny plane to Manchester where I was seated next to a guy from Amsterdam wearing a sweater that had a hotdog on it with a speech bubble reading: pizzzzzzzzzza, dude. He wore bright blue pants, a yellow overcoat, and a scarf with tiny little rainbows, so even though I was annoyed beyond comparison, I HAD to compliment him on his spectacular sense of fashion.

Max, as I would come to know him, promptly turned around and said, “You look glum, have you ever tried shrooms?” No, Max, I had not, nor do I plan on it.

Nevertheless, Max was quite the flight companion, and without my phone, I got to squeeze in a nice (slightly weird) conversation with him that I absolutely know for a fact that I would not have done otherwise.

Other than Max, I have been spending quite a bit of time off of the internet (which is not as easy as I’m making it seem), and although at times it is a bit strange, I think it lets me explore my other interests far better. I ended up reading books I had only read intermittently before finishing up an episode of Chopped, and actually going outside to spend time with plants rather than simply reading about them inside.

It sounds a bit silly, that these are my huge accomplishments, but they leave me feeling somewhat good about not having the same efficient system of browsing the wide web as I would normally have. Would I rather have my phone, and do everything listed above? Absolutely, but life is full of unexpected experiences, and I thought this one was quite interesting.

So, to my phone, that slipped out of my pocket somewhere in Amsterdam, Thank You.