iPhone 6
Sunday morning. I tend to clean my room on Sundays. A fresh start for the week as many would say. It’s cold. This is the last year for Daylight Savings Time, hopefully. I do the usual maintenance: sweeping the floor, dusting the blinds, re-organizing my desk. As I was picking out the junk in my desk drawer, I came across my old, cracked iPhone 6. I put my current one in my shoe box last night, so I’m not tempted to open Instagram, but there was this voice in my head telling me to turn this one on. I waited several minutes for it to recharge. I forgot what information was in it; I recall upgrading at the start of 2019. As the silhouette of the Apple logo appears over the white screen, the memories soon rush in. My lock screen revealed the celebrity I idolized. The home screen portrayed the models I fancied. I opened my messages to a catastrophe. Texts to friends I was with at the time, the women I’ve connected and disconnected with. Retching at the responses to the ones I deemed significant. Laughing at the chaotic messages between colleagues. The brashness of my youth. Then I opened my notes. I see to what I thought was poetry at the time, was actually garbage. I scroll through the old passwords and reminders and stumble across an old epiphany. One that I wrote to myself.
“It is such a great time to be alive at this moment. I think we all get caught up in things we shouldn’t really worry about and should just live in the moment. I mean it’s good to worry about your future but as long as you know you’re headed in the right direction, just take it easy and enjoy the ride. We are so used to living in this fast-paced environment to the point where we tend to forget the things that really matter. Shit this is just one of my typical rants but I feel like if people just posted things that they would from their private to their main, everyone would be much more connected, in a sense. We are all relatable people. I’ve always been the kinda guy who keeps to himself, was always the quiet kid in class but it’s just crazy how so many people worry too much about their image and how they are portrayed on social media (I’ve had my fair share, I would be a hypocrite if I said otherwise). Like there are a lot of people who judge and it’s not even that big of a deal, don’t let it get to your head. Just enjoy yourself, you shouldn’t worry about what others think. I probably sound crazy but I’m pretty sure the majority of you guys are on the same boat. All in all, I’m just tryna say, enjoy it while it lasts, we’re all going to die anyway. If things don’t go your way, just understand that everything happens for a reason.”
Good advice or not, it stuck with me.
I stopped cleaning. I covered myself in a blanket and kept re-reading that note. It’s always interesting looking into the past. The mistakes you’ve made, people you’ve hurt, the ones you’ve loved. My iPhone 6 paused at a certain time in the past, but it is I that must resume in the present.