changes we have made

The Changes We Have Made
¬Beep! Beep! Beep! My cell phone rings and vibrates as I receive an incoming text, the screen displaying the words “1 new message”. Without looking up from my textbook, I reached around the clutters of paper and random items that almost engulfed my small desk. As I blindly searched my desk, my hand finally felt the smooth exterior of my Samsung Behold. My fingers flew rapidly over the buttons as I responded to the text message, and within a couple seconds, I had texted out a whole paragraph. Hitting the send button, I dropped my phone into my pocket and returned to my textbook. However, not long after I started reading again, my stomach let out a loud, low-pitched growl, reminding me of my increasing hunger. Sighing loudly, I had no choice but to leave my studies and attempt to find food in my always empty fridge.
As I descended down the stairs, I could hear the quiet humming of the fridge coming from the brightly lit kitchen as if calling me. I pushed open the door that led to the kitchen and walked briskly to my fridge. Giving my fridge door a hard tug, the light from inside quickly slipped through, as if trying to escape. However, the emptiness of the fridge only made me sigh loudly in defeat and mutter, “That’s what I thought.” Not wanting to search the house for food, I started to go back upstairs but was stopped by a soft ringing on the other side of the kitchen. Turning my head slightly to see what the ringing was, my eyes landed on the large, black rotary phone hanging on the kitchen wall. It had been a long time since anyone had called the landline and almost everyone in the house had forgotten about it due to the fact we all had cell phones.
Almost as if the soft ringing had put me in a hypnotic spell, I slowly stepped off the stairs and made my way over to the phone. However, by the time I reached the other side of the kitchen, the ringing had already stopped. I stood in front of the phone for a couple minutes, as if entranced by its old-fashioned spinning dial. Slowly reaching my hand out, I touched the cold, hard, black plastic, wiping away the thin layer of dust that had covered most of the phone. My index finger found its way into one of the small holes used for dialing and I slowly twirled the dial, listening to the loud clicking sound it made. Suddenly, a flashback of when I was a kid entered my head. I could see a five-year-old me standing on tippy toes atop of a small, brown stool with my fingers in the little holes, trying to figure out how to use the rotary phone. Coming out of the flashback, I felt a small smile creep onto my face as I remembered how much I had loved playing with the old phone and its spinning dial.
Reaching down into my pocket, I pulled out my touch screen cell phone, the lime green case shining brightly under the well lit kitchen. I rubbed my thumb across the smooth, shiny screen, admiring its sleekness. Gripping the phone tightly in my right hand, I looked back up at the rotary phone hanging on the wall. Once again, I reached up and touched the dial, imagining what it would be like if there were no cell phones, and everyone carried around big, wireless rotary phones. A quiet chuckle escaped my lips as the thought of everyone texting with the old-fashioned phone crossed my mind. Pressing the unlock button on my cell phone, I looked down at the buttons, admiring the touch screen technology while murmuring, “Technology has really come a long way…” With one last look at the old rotary phone, I spun on my heels and made my way back upstairs into my room.
Plopping back down into my hard, plastic chair, I could feel vibrations coming from inside my pocket as another text arrived. As I grabbed my phone, the thought of having to use a rotary phone for texting made me really appreciate the technology I have. Instead of my fingers flying over the touch screen, my fingers would be inserting into the small holes meant for dialing; [and instead of being able to text out a paragraph in a matter of a couple seconds, it would probably take around an hour or so.] Shaking the distracting thoughts from my head, I leaned back over my textbook and went back to studying.