The highlight of this week – I got my phone stolen. Now, I know what you’re thinking: that doesn’t really sound like a highlight. But in terms of interesting stuff that doesn’t make you want to die of boredom, this was a regular neon sign. Not because it’s particularly unique, but because losing your phone in a Target and then having it show up in a city you’ve never heard before is pretty much a rite of passage for first world college kids during holiday season.

I spent the car ride home gently reminding my overly sympathetic friends that I had lost a phone, not a family member, so extreme mourning was a tad unnecessary.

See, what I think is funny isn’t that we care so much about our phones. I mean, why would I not want an easy way to keep in contact with my friends and family? What’s way more funny is that is that I immediately had this massive jolt of panic because I was certain that, while I couldn’t get in contact with my family, something life-shatteringly devastating was bound to happen and I wouldn’t be able to contact anyone. It was like reverse fear-of-missing-out – something exciting was going to happen while I wasn’t there, only, in this case, “something exciting” meant widespread death, destruction, and tragedy. I think it’s funny that I’m so used to being able to call my mom if I’m worried about anything that I freak out about not being able to call her. And not only do I freak out – I become convinced that the universe is about to come crumbling down around me.

Of course, on the drive home, I remembered that we don’t live in the stone ages, and I can just send my parents a Facebook message to say I’m off the grid for a few days. Brilliant me, right?

I see a lot of stuff on both sides of the debate as to how attached we are to are phones and, to be honest, I don’t have much of an opinion. I’m much more interested in the fact that I don’t really have to grow up very much because my dad is a phone call away. In fact, when my phone first showed up in another city, I distinctly remember saying, “I should just call my dad. He’ll know what to do.”

See, I think we have a bit of an advantage as far as the whole growing-up-and-moving-out thing goes. Because, while my dad can’t deactivate my phone and go to the at&t store for me, he can still walk me through it if I have no clue what to do. And I’m not quite so sure how I feel about that.

Obviously, there’s some stuff we have to figure out for ourselves. But it’s nice to have a bit of a fallback. It’s like spell check for real life – I do most of it by myself, but there’s someone there to let me know I’m about to screw up if in an emergency. On the other hand, I don’t want to become so dependent on calling my parents when I don’t know what to do that a friend has to remind me to talk to Target customer service and report the missing phone. That is a little pathetic. Okay, that’s a lot pathetic.

I guess what I’m saying is a lot of us are lucky to have someone to fall back on – someone to help us out when we’re kind of lost. But maybe, sometimes, the world doesn’t fall apart when we decide to figure stuff out for ourselves.