I'm still going strong. I am starting to adapt to the situation and each day gets easier and easier surprisingly. It was realy difficult at the beginning I thought I was going to instantly fail, but then I realized thinking that way would just set me up for failure. I turned my mind set around and look how far I've come. I mean I only have two more days. Honestly, I think I could do this for another whole week.
I am actually getting a lot more accomplished without technology distracting me. I'm putting me as top priority which I have never done before and I am having fun at the same time. Thursday was a very productive day for me. I woke up, went to the gym without any music for the first time and ran around the track for half an hour. Then, I played basketball for an hour. I went to my classes and after classes I went right to the library to do homework. I ended up being there for a total of four hours and got ahead in a lot of my classes, because I wanted to enjoy my weekend.
Friday rolled around and I only had two classes that day, so I had to fill the rest of my time up somehow. In the morning I decided to go to the Career Development Center, since I am somewhat undecided with what I want to do with the rest of my life. If I didn't dedicate time to do that I don't think I would have ever gone. The staff was very helpful and taught me about this online FOCUS program where you take surveys about your interests and qualities to help direct you into a possible career that you would excel in. I counted going online for this as homework, because my Foundations of Business professor suggested we visit the Career Development Center. Knowing this information made me feel more positive about my future and more secure that I was on the right path. Around noon I started getting bored of reading, so my neighbors Kara and Kasey asked if I wanted to go to this Bounce Complex which was an hour away. It ended up being a great time. They knew about this assignment, so we had multiple random discussions/conversations on the ride there and back. I hadn't laughed that much in a long time. It is really interesting to notice the differences between people's relationship when there is technology/music to fill the silence and when there is not. I feel I got much closer to those girls and could really open up and talk to them about whatever. This Bounce complex was awesome though! There was 72 trampolines connected to eachother lined up horizontally and vertically. There was even a giant foam pit that you could do flips into. We jumped around for a whole hour. It reminded me of my childhood when I use to hop on my trampoline. It brought back good memories while creating new ones. We got back around nine and still weren't tired surprisingly. We decided to get a group of people together at Mowrey and play a game of Sardines. Once again, this is something I never played but it sounded cool. Basically, one pair of people go hide together in one spot. They can't move from that spot once they are there. Then, all the rest of the players divide up into teams of two and try and go find the hidden pair. Once you find them, you hide with them. You don't want to be the last team that finds everyone or else you lose.
Saturday morning, my friend Jenn came up from IUP and we drove together to Bloomsburg to visit our good friend Abby. It has been a long time since I have talked to either one of them, so we spent a long time just catching up and sharing eachother's college experiences. They both commended me for lasting this long in the challenge and challenged themselves to do the same at least for the day that I was there. Abby gave us a tour of the Bloomsburg campus and then we spent a majority of our time walking around the city going into little boutiques and restaurants. It was a cute little town. I had only been there once before since my older sister Erica attended college there. Jenn drove us home to Quakertown around 3. It was nice to see my family, but I really wanted to see my best friend Lauren who goes to Cedar Crest, so my parents were nice enough to drive me there. Cedar Crest is in Allentown which is only 15 minutes away from Quakertown. It was so nice to see her. We are very active people and love sports, so we organized a game of soccer even though it was somewhat cold out. It was all girls playing since Cedar Crest is an all girl's college. This game was absolutely hilarious. There were girls running around going to kick the ball and missing, because there was a little bit of ice and snow left on the ground. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience aside from minor bumps and bruises. After that, we stayed up until 2am just talking, playing monopoly, and reading magazines.
Sunday, I had a family day. My sister and I came up with a workout routine together in the morning, because she is trying to lose weight as her New Years resolution. Then, I took a shower and went out to lunch with my mom. We went to her favorite fast food restaurant Chick Filet. I like it too and was disappointed when Ship got rid of it in the CUB. My dad and I went to Hatfield that afternoon to visit my grandmother and grandfather. My grandmother has always been very crafty and hands on as well as my grandfather. I thought about it and they have lived their whole lives without a lot of technology. I mean she has a television, but she barely watches it. She spends most of her time quilting, playing cards, cooking, or travelling. It was a real motivational boost to know that if she could do it, so could I. That day I learned how to stitch a quilt by hand, cook my grandmother's chicken noodle soup, and play a card game called Bridge. I never realized how much I like playing games until now. My parents drove me back to Ship that night which leads me to today.
Monday, today. I woke up feeling pretty tired from such a busy weekend and went to my 8am class. The weather was relatively nice and I just stopped to admire the scenery, the trees, the students, the clear blue skies. I took a deep breath in and the air smelled fresh and clean. It actually made my morning more satisfying and gave me more energy. I remembered today was Valentine's Day, so I wrote some cute Valentine's Day cards to my friends and slipped them under their doors. For the rest of the day, I plan to study for my upcoming exams this week, read, and eat chocolate, of course. Two days left, I'll keep you updated!
Having multiple technology sources can sometimes be hard to juggle. For example, someone might have a cell phone, a PDA organizer, a computer, multiple social networking site, video game systems, and an ipod system. You not only have to keep track of everything, but keep up with all the people associated with them. If you don't text someone back they worry and think you're dead. If you don't post a comment on someone's facebook wall they don't think you're friends. When I went back to using technology I had 24 text messages and 41 facebook comments. It was ridiculous. Although having all of those comments made me realize the benefits of technology. Technology allows me to keep in touch with important people in my life which adds to my mental health and happiness. I like feeling wanted and significant and like a person who you can talk to. I didn't go insane without technology, but I found it very difficult to find other sources of happiness. Now that I have completed the challenge, I have a variety of ways to entertain myself and be content. It was certainly a challenge, but what does not kill you makes you stronger.
