There are many times when I try to do this on my own. I try to spend at least 15 min away from technology for my own health. There are many things I think about when I am left alone with my thoughts. My brain, quite frankly, won’t shut up. 

The first thing that came to my mind was what would we do without technology. I can’t remember a time when I was bored and didn’t have anything important to do and did not sit on my phone scrolling through instagram or see if I had received any snapchats. As I sat in my bed staring at my ceiling, I thought about how much time out of my day I spend on my phone. Not hours, but just fractions of every day. How much exercise I could be doing or how much studying I could be doing. There’s always something else to do besides being  on our phones. 

My brain doesn’t  spend much time on this subject, though. As I stare at my wall, I focus on one picture of my dad that I had just hung up on my wall after I came back from winter break. I look at that picture along with two other vintage pictures, taken when I was just one year old. The picture reminds me of how much I miss my parents, but I don’t need pictures to be reminded of that. I am an only child, which means my mom and dad are not just my parents, they’re  also my best friends. My whole life I have relied on my parents for everything and it is still weird that I’m only 18 and I’m basically living on my own, three hours away from them. 

My mind is kind of all over the place, but when I do take time to myself with no distraction, every time I think about my family, and I think I am lucky to be able to say that.