I remember the day I didn’t bring my phone to school because I left it at home. I thought it was the end of everything.
Little did I know the absence of that small device would lead me to a completely new experience that most of us haven’t gone through in a long time.
The school day was starting to feel a lot longer than usual without my beloved phone. Tutorial felt like it was dragging on forever. No headphones. No scrolling. No distractions.
Instead, I ended up powering through homework and felt pretty proud when I knocked out a bunch in just 30 minutes.
Next period was chemistry. Again, everyone crowded to put their phones away while I got a head-start on the daily warm-ups. The last five minutes of class was the time we got to look through our phones. Unfortunately, I had to sit at my desk and do nothing.
Instead, I tackled my boredom by writing down my assignments that were due on a sticky note. This served as a handy little reminder, since I had forgotten one due that night.
As the bell rang for lunch, I walked to my usual spot for lunch, but no one was there. Surprised, I walked around trying to find my friends. There was no way to communicate with them with no phone. I wasted 10 minutes looking for them before I finally figured they were in the main building.
It hit me then how attached my friends were to their phones. Everyone was watching videos, playing games or listening to music while texting. I used this time to finish math homework.
At that moment I started to think about what I would’ve been doing if I had my phone with me. I might have been doing something similar to my friends, and wouldn’t have gotten anything done.
Lunch felt long and boring as well, but I was delighted about all the work I was getting done.
I was surprised to hear everyone say, “Oh man, lunch went by so quick!” It felt like two months had passed by for me.
It was finally time for choir. Our teacher said it was an easy day as all we had to do was record ourselves singing a new song and upload it on Google Classroom. I dramatically rolled my eyes from exasperation, because I didn’t have my phone.
My life had gotten a lot harder.
I pulled out my chromebook, recorded myself and uploaded it onto Google Classroom, which took twice as long as it would’ve on my phone.
For the rest of class, I completed notes for history and studied for a quiz the next day.
English was the last class of the day. Everyone would usually complete their work early so they could spend the rest of class chilling on their phones.
But since my love was far, far away, I put in a little more effort on the slideshow we were working on and then read a book.
After class was over, I went to wait for my mom to pick me up. But 15 minutes passed and she wasn’t there. Since no one I knew was around, I couldn’t use their phone to call her, so I continued to wait until she finally arrived.
The minute I got home, I was more than ecstatic to see my beautiful phone. I went on it for what felt like 10 minutes, but was actually closer to an hour.
I noticed that I was able to be a lot more productive when my phone (more like my distraction) wasn’t around me. I completed almost all of my homework and studied for a quiz because of my time away from my phone.
Sure, the day felt slower and a lot more boring without my phone, but I couldn’t deny it, I was more focused and accomplished with no phone.
With the new state law coming, I will have to put my phone away and pay attention in class. After all, it might not be such a bad idea anyway.
