Last Friday my amazing friends from home took a trip from their uni towns to come and visit me in Nottingham. Of course this meant a big night out. While we were all busy dancing the night away and pretending we were a sassy girl band, a snoopy pair of hands slipped in to my handbag and stole my phone! I’m usually very good with my phone, I never break it and I’d never lost it before so I was really surprised that this was happening to me.
Looking back, I am quite thankful it was me that had
my phone taken and not one of my friends; others may not have taken the
discovery of their phone being gone quite as calmly as I did. But I was there
to have a good night with my favourite people, and there was nothing I could do
about my phone, so I continued with the evening as normal. As soon as I got
home I logged on to my laptop and opened up ‘Find My iPhone’. Offline. Great.
There was no hope of me getting this phone back. I didn’t get paid till the
following Thursday so wouldn’t be getting a new phone till then. I accepted my
fate of a phoneless week. Here’s how it went.
Saturday:
I didn’t really notice not having my phone with my
friends being round, as I hardly would’ve used it anyways. There was too much
catching up to be done. It did hit me when we headed to a Nottingham Fashion Week
event and I had the sudden urge to Snapchat/Instagram my surroundings. It made
me question why we feel the need so bad to let every one on our contacts list
know what we’re up to.
Sunday:
My friends had gone home and I faced a twenty minute
walk back to my flat from the train station without a phone. It didn’t dawn on me until then how much
I needlessly have my phone in my hand. What’s wrong with walking around town
with your eyes focused on what’s in front of you? Why did I feel the need to
scroll Facebook as I made my journey home?
With lectures awaiting me the next morning, I realised
a crucial role of my phone. The alarm app. How was I going to wake up? Thankfully
I have an amazing flatmate who, being on my course, has a very similar schedule
to me, and agreed to wake me up every morning. Babe.
Monday:
Telling the time. Another crucial role. I headed to
Primark and picked up a cheap watch, otherwise I would not have made any of my
seminars or meetings that week. Organising specific meet up times and places
became very important, because as soon as I left my room, I had no form of
communication with anyone until I actually saw them face to face.
Tuesday:
By this point I was becoming quite used to not having
a phone. There were still things which were a little odd, like not being able
to text my best friend a funny story right away, or not being able to google my
spontaneous burning questions, but overall it really wasn’t that bad.
Wednesday:
Knowing I would get paid tomorrow, I went online to
see about ordering a new phone. It turned out my upgrade was due in October and
I only had £180 left to pay on my device. It wasn’t ideal that I had to fork
out this much money, but it was far cheaper than purchasing a brand new iPhone.
Thursday:
The day had come! Off I strutted to the O2 store,
confident that I would be walking away with a new phone. It turned out I had some kind of block on my phone and it would take 24 hours to lift. I'd gone almost a week, I could wait another day.
Friday:
At this point I was so ready to have a phone back in my life. I had a number of phone calls I needed to make and it was becoming quite the inconvenience. Just my luck though, the block hadn't been lifted. In fact, they claimed no one even tried to lift the block in the first place. Another promise of 24 hours, and another disappointing walk home.
Saturday:
I wasn't all that hopeful that I'd be walking home with a new phone in my hands today. And rightly so. I went in to the store and they told me again that they couldn't upgrade me because of the block on my phone. I stomped home, very frustrated, and somehow stumbled across another O2 store that was much closer to my flat than the one I'd been trekking to every day! I thought I'd chance it and see if the staff were any more helpful in this store.
Within half an hour I had a new iPhone 6 in my hands! While being frustrated that I'd been walking past this store everyday without realising, and had I gone to this one in the first place I could have had a phone days earlier, I was elated that I had a phone back in my life.
One of the things that I had missed the most about not having a phone was Snapchat. Somehow posting 3 second clips of my daily life, and viewing the snippets of 30 other people, was an integral part of my routine. It dawned on me that we're all a little too obsessed with making our lives appear appealing to people we hardly know, and far too concerned about what everyone else is up to. It was quite nice enjoying my Starbucks cookie without the constant thought of having to upload my snack to social media. Needless to say I went straight back to my old habits as soon as I had a phone again. *insert selfie with dog filter*
Friday:
At this point I was so ready to have a phone back in my life. I had a number of phone calls I needed to make and it was becoming quite the inconvenience. Just my luck though, the block hadn't been lifted. In fact, they claimed no one even tried to lift the block in the first place. Another promise of 24 hours, and another disappointing walk home.
Saturday:
I wasn't all that hopeful that I'd be walking home with a new phone in my hands today. And rightly so. I went in to the store and they told me again that they couldn't upgrade me because of the block on my phone. I stomped home, very frustrated, and somehow stumbled across another O2 store that was much closer to my flat than the one I'd been trekking to every day! I thought I'd chance it and see if the staff were any more helpful in this store.
Within half an hour I had a new iPhone 6 in my hands! While being frustrated that I'd been walking past this store everyday without realising, and had I gone to this one in the first place I could have had a phone days earlier, I was elated that I had a phone back in my life.
One of the things that I had missed the most about not having a phone was Snapchat. Somehow posting 3 second clips of my daily life, and viewing the snippets of 30 other people, was an integral part of my routine. It dawned on me that we're all a little too obsessed with making our lives appear appealing to people we hardly know, and far too concerned about what everyone else is up to. It was quite nice enjoying my Starbucks cookie without the constant thought of having to upload my snack to social media. Needless to say I went straight back to my old habits as soon as I had a phone again. *insert selfie with dog filter*
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