call the police

dear world wide web,

In our last class, we were talking about how people become worried, scared, and pissed off when you don't answer a phone call or text message right away. It had me thinking of a day that I had last year. It was two days after my 20th birthday and I was in a terrible mood for many different reasons. I decided I was going to shut my phone off and just watch movies all day with my two best friends so that I wasn't worrying about everything else going on in my world (or in my phone I guess you could say. I had been fighting with two of my friends from home (through text message, obviously) and just wanted it to end. I wanted a break, a huge gap, between myself and the conflict occuring with my friends via my phone.

I ended up sleeping over my friend's apartment that night because we ended up watching Back to the Future 1, 2, and 3. When I got back to me room in the morning I turned on my computer. I had over 20 IMs from my mother. These messages included: where are you? why arent you answering the phone? i havent heard from you in days (which wasn't true), why dont i have any of your friends phone numbers? if i dont hear from you by 1 p.m. im calling the police!

I quickly looked at the time at the bottom of the screen; it was 2:15. I frantically plugged in my phone to call my mom. She answered the phone in a fit of rage. I don't even remember the words she was saying because I think I blacked out from the screaming. Two minutes later, the resident director of my dorm at the time came to my door. She told me that the entire resident directory and residence life had been looking for me for over an hour and that I had to call my mom.

My mom had called the school, university police, new paltz police, and then in turn were going to have state troopers look for me.

All because I didn't answer a phone. This specific incident is the one that makes me so crazy about having my phone on me at all times. I get really anxious when I do not have a phone because I am afraid that a family member is trying to get in touch with me and I don't want them to be worried because I am not picking up a phone.

But WHY are they getting worried? When my mom was growing up she didn't have a cell phone. She was on the streets of Brooklyn, wandering around on subways and buses at a crazy young age and her mom never called the police because she couldn't get in touch with her.

I tried to explain this to my mom. Last weekend I went home for my cousin's bridal shower and a similiar incident happenned between my mom and my younger sister. I then explained to my mom, in Powers' words, hoping it would stick with her because it was a professional saying it, not me. I told her that sometimes we all, including my sisters and I, need a break from the phone. If we are hanging out with friends, we should be able to leave our phones alone in order to experience, and I mean REALLY experience, the time we have with our friends.

She seemed to agree a little bit, yet as I got in my car to drive back to New Paltz she yelled to me "Kiersten (in a staten island accent..Keeysten) don't forget to call ya motha once in a while." At least, we're making progress.

Kiersten