Old Texts

This afternoon, I read through and deleted most of the old texts that had been saved and transferred from one phone to the next over the years. While this might not seem long ago, some texts were as old as 2011. To give some perspective, I was just starting my freshman year of college back then.

As I deleted these old texts, I felt like I was opening my own time capsule. With essentially one college semester remaining, I've come to reflect on the past few years with greater focus. From the people I've met to the places I've been to the experiences I've had, much of my life was caught in these snippets of 160 characters or less. From this exercise, I learned the following:

  1. People. There are some people with whom I am likely to never speak again. Despite our almost addictive use of social media networks and the resulting interconnected nature of our daily lives, the direct action of sending a message or making a call is often uncomfortable for both the sender and receiver. I still have friends from sixth grade in my phone, but in the almost 10 years that separate then and now, there is chasm not readily crossed.

  2. Places. In the past few years, I've been fortunate enough to visit 3 continents including 10 countries and a number of states within the U.S. Pictures sent to family and friends via texts capture many of these memories. And it's only the beginning. There is still so much to see and learn about the planet I inhabit and I'm excited at just the thought of where I'll be next.

  3. Experiences. In high school and throughout my earlier years of college, I never really understood why people put so much value and weight on "experience." Now I think I understand why. As much as I like to learn about the world via content found in books and on the Web, the act of being and living in the real world has expanded my view and presented a deeper understanding. I once read a blog post about getting lost in NYC, but actually getting lost and sending those last texts before my phone died were an entirely different experience.


These old texts were sacrificed in the name of more phone space for the next iOS update, app, or picture, but they will not be soon forgotten. I made sure to save the texts that meant most to me, from the hilarious cheese puns to congratulatory remarks on the job offer acceptance.

Perhaps my generation grew up in a time when we limited ourselves to 160 characters, but you can say and mean a lot with the right ones. And I don't even get me started on emojis.

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