55 sorority girls and a cabin in the woods. It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but it was this year's sorority retreat. As we packed up to head down there, I purposely didn't tell the girls that there was no wifi. We would be in a beautiful area surrounded by the people we loved the most. Still, I expected chaos to ensue. But as the hours passed by, something amazing happened — we actually talked to each other. Not the conversations that are broken up with snap chats or quick texts but actually talking and listening to each other.
There is something so refreshing about not feeling the need to check your phone first thing in the morning. Not having to plug in before bed. You can clear your mind, and open yourself to the people you are with to connect with and experience the environment around you.
The problem with our generation is that we are so connected to our phones. If we love something we need to snap it, or we need to text about it. We can't live in the moment anymore. We have to save the moment for likes and comments to prove that the moment was important. Some here down the road, we decided that our opinion on what was important was nonexistent and that only others could tell us how to feel about something. Why do we need validation to believe that the moments in our lives are valuable?
As graduation approaches for me, if I could leave my sisters with anything, it would be to always remember to live their lives. To experience new things with friends. To laugh deeply and to love fully and to remember that they are amazing women with the ability to make their own decisions. And to spend their time off of their phones, apart from their laptops, and to live free.
I pray that my children will learn to love moments. Learn to leave their phones at home when they're going to a special event and watch moments happen with their own eyes as opposed to from behind the lens of a camera. I pray that they learn to love life for all of its true moments and not for social media. While these things have become a necessity in our lives, there is nothing better for the soul than to break free and spend time in your own life.
