Story: The reason I ended up getting a phone

As an adolescent, I prided myself in being not your 'typical' teen. For me, this meant avoiding brand names and knitting in the halls. It also meant not getting a cell phone, which most of my peers carried around. I had an iPod for 6 years, but no cell phone. Nearing the end of its lifespan, it had a cracked screen that shed shards of glass in my fingertips when I scrolled the screen. It also leaked an interesting fluid, but despite its signs of tragic ailment, I still did not want a cell phone. In fact, I was not an owner of a cell phone until I was 16 years old, and I didn't even want one then.

It was a warm summers day, when I was supposed to take the bus home. I had some scattered directions in my brain, and I decided to just go for it, like the idiot I was (and still partially am). So I got on the bus. 

My first warning sign should have been that someone in my class from north kildonan was on the bus. I do not live in north kildonan. I live in Osborne. 

As the bus ride went on and on, I looked around at familiar Winnipeg, but I was starting to feel like my surroundings were very unfamiliar for a ride home. The bus was driving me through down town. 

My heart was beating like a jack rabbit in my chest. My eyes flickered from street to street. Oh where, oh where was my transfer stop. No where to be seen.

Eventually, I was the only person on the bus. I sat in the back, partially paralysed for lack of knowing what to do, and also hoping that by staying still that the bus driver wouldn't notice me and carry on with his route. This method is also used by several animals when they want to keep others from noticing them. Its also known as playing dead. 

This did not work for me, because the bus drivers startled eye line in the rear view mirror met mine. I was at the last stop, on Logan Ave. I had never been here before, and did not want to be made to get off at the stop. 

I looked down at my ipod and tried to text my mom. But I couldn't, because I wasn't attached to any wifi. I was NO SIGNAL, MESSAGE NOT DELIVERED, FIND A WIFI NETWORK NEAR YOU (but none existed) kind of lost. 

The bus driver got out of his seat and walked slowly towards me. He gave me a side eye, strange kind of look to say without words: why are you still on my bus lady? 

He asked out loud if I was okay because I was visibly distressed. I sat very still. No, I said. I am lost. He asked me where I was headed. When I said Osborne, he sort of looked down and rubbed his temples. Okay, he said. I am about to go on another route, I will drop you off at a stop I'm not supposed to go, and you take a 16 to Osborne okay?

Okay. I answered sheepishly. 

I got dropped off by a bus stop that 16s stopped at. I then went home, and my mom greeted me with a high pitched: Where were you!

So, after much refusal of needing a phone, I was presented with a rose gold iPhone 7 in November of my grade 10 year. I felt defeated by the fact I had succom to technology. But I felt glad that I would never get lost again.