Phoneless in Mongolia

Coming from someone who carries a phone charger when I go out because my phone battery can't hang with my constant phone usage, thinking about going a day without my cell phone was something I could not fathom.

Upon a nice four person bike ride on a two mile trail in UB National Park, my phone decided to go adventuring out of my pocket while I was peddling and not only after finishing the trail at the bike rental shop is when I noticed. Instantly panicking, I grabbed a small flowery kids bike and peddled back around the track.

Rocking this flower bike, I peddled fast in fear someone might snatch it. Not only was I intensely out of breath due to my lack of cardio practice, but I was traveling in the opposite direction of traffic. Focusing on my breath, dodging children whose parents are nowhere to be found, and also looking for my bumble bee color covered phone was just asking for a recipe for disaster. My struggle was real as workers of the park were shouting at me in a language I couldn't speak to not continue in the direction I was headed. Upon reaching the spot I knew I used my phone last I called it quits and headed back to the bike rental shop where everyone in the group was patiently waiting for me.

Coming back empty handed really concerned everyone and without even asking, everyone volunteered to search the track another time with me. This was awesome to see and I felt so great to be apart of a team full of people so willing and helpful. Though we came back from the second run (my third) phoneless, it was very amazing to see this group instantly drop their own needs to help me out through a time that was very difficult for me. I'm very lucky to be apart of this group.

Leaving the park I realized, how the heck am I going to tell my parents?! Like if they were trying to contact me during the time I lost it and all the other activities we did throughout the day before coming back to the hostel to tell them on my laptop, they would have had a nation wide search party looking for me! Good thing it was during the time they were sleeping and we didn't have to go through that, but they were very alarmed to receive a facetime call at 4 in the morning. Luckily they were very understanding of the situation and were all over find my iPhone that instant. Unfortunately due to being in a foreign country with my data roaming switched to off, retrieving this lost phone became impossible.

Yes this is very upsetting but I believe it's a great growing experience. I became aware of how dependent I am on my phone and how much I am actually missing out on my life and school work in college because how much of a snapchat fiend I am. I almost feel this trip will actually be more appreciated without my eyes glued to a screen the whole time. I'm excited to see what else I can accomplish that I didn't believe I could before, like not having my phone for longer than twenty minutes.

#Jake #iphone #toejuice