Living life eyes up in school

Students roam the halls with various distractions- music, loud conversations, PDA- but one distraction seems to be a constant, no matter who the student is. Phones can easily captivate people and often cause them to do embarrassing or foolish things. In school, it is easy to recognize multiple instances where students accidentally run into things, trip, or walk into the wrong classroom because they are focused on their phones. 

During finals week, I was walking upstairs after school ended when I had an awkward encounter. Without multitasking, it is already difficult to walk up or downstairs with so many students during the school day. Using one’s phone causes the task to be even more difficult. At 3:05 p.m., hallway traffic instantly becomes completely horrid. For the most part, everybody is moving downstairs, trying to exit the school as quickly as possible. 

Specifically, on this day at 3:05 p.m., I could be found on the far right of the staircase, hugging the railing while people attempted to quicken the pace of their peers on the trip downstairs. I had a question for one of my teachers about an assignment and was forced to walk upstairs to get to her room. As I began the trek upstairs, I realized there was a student walking down, taking the same path as me. 

Alike to most kids my age, in certain settings, social interaction tends to make me uncomfortable. I started to gradually become more nervous as the student came closer because he was too focused on his phone to notice me. Slowing my steps down, I wished for the student to notice me before I was forced into an awkward exchange. Nothing changed, so I figured that the best option in this case was to come to a complete stop, hoping for the student to see me before we collided.  

At this point, we were about four stairs apart before I decided to start stepping backwards. Not realizing that there was a person behind me, I moved down one step and felt a gentle shove. The approaching person walked straight into me and continued to walk down two steps before realizing that he was taking me with him. He muttered an apology and each of us continued to go our separate ways. 

Living life eyes up is necessary because it strengthens communication and allows people to make connections. Refraining from use of technology while doing other things allows a person to focus on the task at hand, rather than making errors in a multitask attempt. While it can be funny to watch peers run into walls, it is concerning to see them going through life without truly seeing everything that is there. Life is short, people should not allow themselves to revolve around their phones.