Feeling the Sunshine, Spring 2020
An EHS Student Special Feature Publication
No Need for Phones
by Jacob Girard
On May 11 th , 2020, in the middle of quarantine, I lost one thing but gained
something more important. I was being like most teens… Until, it got out of hand and what do
you know? I got my phone and video games taken away. At first, I was furious. Then, I thought
about it. I know everything happens for a reason. I got my stuff taken away for a reason, but
maybe it wasn’t to punish me. What if it was to show me something?
The first couple of days without everything was tough because I lost my streaks on Snap
and couldn’t do anything I wanted to do. My parents were still kind of mad at me and they
were not going to break and give me my stuff back. They wanted me to learn. Indeed, I was
learning more than just to behave and not disrespect them. I was learning to cherish everything
I have in life right now.
After trying to live without my phone and my games for a few days, I decided to go
outside and play basketball and work on my shooting to get better. Then, my friend’s dad asked
me if I wanted a job to do. Without knowing what it would be I said “Sure. What is
it?” He said, “I need you to cut down these vines, so they don’t kill my trees.” I started the job
the next day and it turned into my schedule. Wake up; Do school work; Eat lunch; Do my
chores; Watch a little tv; then ask to play basketball at my friend’s house so I could play until his
dad got home so I could do more work for him. I did that one job to cut down the vines for
three days. And after that he even offered me more jobs to do. Such as clean the flower bed so
we could re-mulch it and he also asked me to do other outdoor work like that. And I
accepted all his offers because it gave me something to do. It also gave me a chance to interact
with the people that are close to me because you never know what might happen. Without my
phone and video games I now have been hanging out with my parents more and watching tv at
night with them and I never really did that.
I think that it is good that I am taking time away from my phone. I encourage others to
try it as well. I know what you are probably thinking. “What? There is a teen that thinks not
being on a phone is good?” Yeah, it is good. After not having my stuff for only a week, I have
had so much stress lifted off me. I don’t have to worry about social media, I don’t have to
see all the bad stuff going on in the world on my news feed and I am going outside more. I have
been able to spend more time with the people I love and explore life and the world.
Now might be the only free time that you have to try something new and explore the
world. Because in the future you might have something that is holding you back from doing so. I
got to see that there are some really nice people in the world; when I was