I drove past a thrift store; two college-age boys were sitting on a couch. I guessed they had purchased it from the store for their college digs. Now they were just waiting for their friends with a car. They sat on that couch looking at their phones.
I suddenly felt a little melancholy. Missing something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
Then I thought about my college days. My friends and I sat together in a lot of places.
Bleachers at football games. The lobby of the dorms (the only place there was a T.V.). One friend and I found a bathroom on the second floor of a building on campus. There was a window without a screen, and we would sit on the ledge with our legs hanging over. We would shout down to people we knew and wave.
While sitting in our places,
we would talk,
laugh,
sit in silence,
share stories,
cry,
support each other,
argue sometimes.
We didn’t have cell phones.
Don’t get me wrong, I am guilty of taking myself out of the moment and looking at my phone instead of the people I am with.
We live in an age of instant information; we can reach anyone at any time.
While our ability to communicate is state of the art, is our ability to connect starting to fade away?
Wouldn’t it be great to experience sitting with someone and just “being”? I guess that starts with me putting my phone away when I am with others.
I don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to connect. Now, it is more likely to be a lobby, break room, or some other adult place.
If you need to sit and “be” for a while, come sit with me.
