Rushing frantically, doing a mental checklist in my mind, throwing random things (and hopefully the right things) in my black hole of a bag – Typical Monday morning. It seems I’ve fulfilled every cliché found in those cheesy early morning scenes where the bustling teenager sprints everywhere through the family house before school with just enough time to grab a burnt bagel from Mom.  Eventually, and somewhat magically, I make it out the door to my bike after what felt like an eternity of just getting myself together. I manage to make time to glance at the time and realize I’m actually on time! Like I do every day, I rummage around in the abyss I call my back pack in search of my iPod. A bike ride to class just isn’t the same without background music blaring in your ears. I manage to grab a hold of the iPod after some serious rummaging only to find a not so pleasant labyrinth looking headphones attached. Ugh.

We’ve all dealt with this awful frustration. A knot here, a kink there, and then due to all of the sudden pent up anger you’ve recently acquired for your headphones, you throw in a nice strong yank on them in public and everyone assumes you’re crazy. Yep, been there. As if more couldn’t have slowed me down this morning, I run in to yet another obstacle. So, like everyone in my generation – I NEED my music to survive! I take the time to unravel the headphones, throwing in that crazy yank here and there to raise some eyebrows of the innocent passerby. FINALLY I’ve conquered the beast that is my headphones. All ready to go, I just need to plug in my headphones to my iPod and get to class. Before hopping on my bike I put my headphones in, press play and the screen briefly shows a picture of a battery. My iPod screen instantly goes black. NO BATTERY. Double ugh.

On my all too quiet bike ride to class, I begin to notice the world around me isn’t so quiet. I actually take the time to observe my surroundings as I bike by. Since when was there an upside down tree in between Irving and the Chem building? Has that always been there? Whoa, one of my floor mates takes the exact same route to class as I do? When did that happen? There’s an all organic produce stand in front of Irving today? Double whoa. I was amazed by how much I took in just by turning my music off. Ironically, the same day my global politics professor discussed how my generation is in way too deep with our technology. I couldn’t agree more. Lesson learned: Unplug yourself from your technology once in a while. Take the time to actually take in the beautiful surroundings you’re lucky enough to call home. After coming to this realization, I actually found more order in my life. Tangled headphones aside, I actually had time to think and take in my surroundings not just on my bike ride, but my walks to class and other places. I always assumed that since my weekly schedule looked like this:

that I could get away from all my frustrations and To-Do’s by turning my music up. In actuality, the silence allowed me to get my thoughts together and unravel the day that was ahead of me. Now, I’m not saying music or technology is bad. Just take in to consideration that maybe what you think you’re avoiding by turning your iPod up to full blast is actually an opportunity to talk with a new person, a missed chance to realize the awesome things going on around you, or an idea lost to the din of your music. So, my personal suggestion of the week: Unplug, unwind, and enjoy. Besides, untangling headphones is no fun anyway.