Once again, the lovely state of Mississippi (or at least the lovely campus of Mississippi State University and the surrounding areas) was struck with severe weather today...tornadoes, wind, and lots of rain! I feel like this is becoming a normal occurrence here at school. It doesn't even bother me anymore when we get the tornado watch warnings posted on our residence hall doors or when I get the nice "Maroon Alert" text messages warning me about the oncoming weather. I used to be really afraid of bad weather because my family got stuck in a tornado years ago in Memphis (we could see the funnel cloud behind us and the wind was rocking our tiny little Camry with all five of us inside it). I'm still not very comfortable driving in conditions like that, but I guess I'm getting used to storms since they are more common here. It also takes scaredy-cat/cautious me a long time to forget and get over scary things...still need to work on not being fearful!
I had just gotten out of class and headed to the newly-opened (and very amazing) Student Union to grab some lunch. Gib and I went to sit inside the bakery with a fellow RUF members in hopes that if the bad weather did come, we would get to go inside the underground tunnel for shelter...which happened. :) (The end of the bakery is solid glass windows almost all the way around, so it's not the safest place to be during a storm.) While the sirens wailed, the wind whistled, and the rain poured, we were tucked safely away in a concrete barrier...for an hour and a half. No one got cell phone service down there and a few of us gripped about it. Ironically, I had just been talking to Gib about how necessary our cell phones are these days. I know that I simply must have one for college journalism, whether it's texting an editor with a question or an update, calling a senator while he's traveling, trying to get hold of various people by calling multiple times during the day, setting up an interview over the phone while running to class, pausing in the middle of grocery shopping or a work-out to do a phone interview, receiving a call asking me to meet someone in ten minutes, or being woken up early in the morning by a professor calling to see if I'm interested in writing about an incredible study-abroad opportunity. That's just part of the list for "journalism reasons". If I'm driving home, walking back from the library late at night, or simply wanting to talk to my mom, I need that cell phone.Thursday, January 10, 2008
I wish I didn't need my cell phone
The lists continue, but simply put, I can't do without my cell phone. I kind of hate that. I don't like the fact that I can be reached at any time. Sometimes it's nice, but it's also irritating. I'm never excited about being woken up in the middle of a nap with a call to meet a contact, but at the same time, it's part of my job and I'm fortunate to get a phone call back from almost any contact. I don't like that I use my phone as a security blanket either. If I'm waiting by myself for someone, I'm often not content to sit there and wait. I often begin a text message, clean out my messages, listen to my voice mails, place a call, or a return a call while waiting. I'm not comfortable just sitting there because I feel alone. I'm worried about just being by myself out in public and yet I am one of those people that HAS to have my "alone time". Isn't that crazy? I can waste so much time on my phone and yet I need for journalism, need it to talk to my grandmother two states away, need it to talk to my best friends hours away in other states, and need it for security reasons (legitimate and illegitimate reasons) and yet I find myself wishing more and more that I didn't need it as much. It's a nice luxury but hey, we got along fine without them no too terribly long ago.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not giving up my phone or turning it off indefinitely. I just think I need to reconsider my texting patterns and watch out for the idle chatter that I often use my phone for instead of working on it, doing interviews, talking to my family, or being alerted about the bad weather...like MSU tornadoes. :)
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1 comment:
Yay, Aubra is blogging now!
I'm finally glad to be back into school now (kinda)... people make all the difference
how are classes so far?
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