Today, I felt naked.
I forgot my cell phone at home and didn’t have it all day long. It felt as if I was missing a piece of me almost. It’s pretty crazy to think that an electronic device can have such a presence in our lives and shows how far we’ve come from our non-phone days.
It was uncomfortable being completely disconnected from a network. In a way, I was freed from the obligation of a phone. I didn’t have to worry about having to pick up the phone to answer a call or a text message, and that freedom was something I was unfamiliar with. The feeling was probably compounded by my lack of a watch (ran out of battery a few days ago), as I had no real sense of time. It was an eventful day though and I survived, sans phone and all.
This post probably wasn’t what you expected from the title. But yes, in a way, I was naked today.
The source of my nakedness
A few years removed, a place I once called home has become a little foreign to me.
Over winter break, I visited my alma mater San Mateo High School with a friend. It was great to see and talk to some of my old teachers and coaches, but I didn’t really feel like I belong anymore. As the final bell rang and all the current high schoolers filed out into the halls, I felt out of place. Since I graduated almost three years ago, no one really recognized me. I saw all the orange and black posters, banners, and school spirit that has been a staple of San Mateo for decades, and couldn’t help but recall the amazing memories I have from my four years there.
I spent my freshman and sophomore years in the portables (which are now tennis courts), and though it wasn’t an ideal learning environment, I enjoyed my time there. I remember having lunch everyday in Bearcat Lair and walking through rickety halls of portable city. My junior and senior years, we moved into brand new buildings. The red-bricked school area was absolutely beautiful, with the buildings surrounding a wonderful amphitheater that played host to many awesome lunch rallies.
The four years I spent at San Mateo High School were some of the most important years of my life. I grew a lot as a person, learning from teachers, coaches, and friends. I remember walking across the stage at graduation thinking that it was a bittersweet moment, knowing this was a final high school goodbye and the beginning to a new chapter of life. It’s a little sad to not be involved with my high school anymore, but I did take with me memories that will last a lifetime.
Once a bearcat, always a bearcat.
Most days of the week, I enjoy flipping open the Daily Cal newspaper and reading about all the happenings involving the people, students, and city of Berkeley. It’s kind of sad to see newspapers and print media starting to die out and give way to electronic versions. I might be among a dwindling few, but I love the experience of feeling the paper in my hands and flipping through it, looking for headlines and images that catch my eye.
Along the same lines, printed literature is fading as well. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of my mom taking me and my brother to storytelling time at my local public library. We would happily listen to the librarian’s books and then run through the library picking out interesting books. Sometimes my mom would have to nag at us a little to leave the library. Imagine that. Throughout my younger school days, we went to the three libraries in my hometown so much that all the city’s librarians recognized us and knew us by name. It’s quite hard to picture a world without them. But I guess that’s the direction the digital age is heading.
To this day, I still enjoy wandering into a library and just reading among the quiet. I know books continue to inspire wonder and imagination in countless kids everyday. If our society must bring the eventual downfall of libraries, I just hope it doesn’t take all its many stories, history, and imagination with it.
Walking around the Berkeley campus and surrounding streets, you can’t help but notice the many homeless people. I see so many everyday that it almost becomes routine. It becomes harder to distinguish between the recent homeless who are just down on their luck and the chronic stragglers who don’t seem to care. I guess don’t really trust the homeless. It seems irresponsible to see some of them beg for money and then use it for things like alcohol and drugs, when what they should really be doing is trying to get out of their rut. That’s why I usually don’t like to just give money and believe that the recipient will put it to good use. I guess it’s not really my place to judge homeless people, but if it’s my money, I don’t want it wasted. I’d rather spend my time, not money, trying to help others. I think it’s a better way.
I definitely feel for the homeless though… It must be horrible to be wandering the streets without a place to call home. I think about it more during the winter, when the weather is the worse, and wonder how hard it must be to have to deal with the elements, especially the rain and cold.
I hope you and I will never have to experience it. But to those who don’t have a home, I wish you the best at getting back on your feet.
Wow, Avatar in 3D was such a visually stunning movie. The plot may have been recycled from past films, but I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like literally stepping into a whole new world. The environment and Na’vi people were so detailed that they were virtually brought to life. There was a powerful realness to it.
After watching the movie last night, I actually had a dream about living in Pandora (the movie’s main setting). It would be awesome to experience a world like that in real life. The network of nature that was portrayed in the movie was amazing. I felt chills when I saw the scene when all the Na’vi people were sitting around the roots of the glowing Tree of Souls, linked and swaying, together with nature, connected as one.
It’s pretty amazing how far special effects have come in films. Perhaps movie theaters will go toward virtual reality experiences in the future.