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    Willis 1

    Elizabeth Willis

    Dr. Dietel-McLaughlin

    FYC 13100: First Year Composition

    30 August 2010

    Finding Independence from Technology

    As I stood there in front of the all-too-familiar ATM machine, I could feel the

    impatience from the anxious studentsin line weighing down on me. It was football ticket

    pick-up day, and I was one of many who were cramming to get money out to pay for one

    of coveted ticket booklets. I scurried to find my debit card and quickly inserted it into theslot, trying to waste no time. I felt as if I wasin auto-pilot, as I seemingly knew all the

    correct buttons to press and could predict the prompts before they came on the screen.

    However, my auto-pilot came to a fast halt as a message came across the screen in a

    glaring yellow print, Invalid PIN number. Convinced this was an error on my part, I re-

    entered my PIN, and the same message came across. With the feelings of embarrassment

    and confusion on my shoulders, I crept out of line with my card in hand and avoided any

    eye contact with the other students in line. I could feel my cheeks start to flush and the

    clamminess in my hands start to kick in as I hurriedly found the nearest bathroom to

    collect myself.

    About 10 minutes and a Starbucks iced coffee later, I felt re-energized and ready

    to give the ATM another shot. I got back into the long weaving line with an extra pep and

    confidence in my step due to the caffeine and the assumption that the machine was

    obviously malfunctioning before. When I finally reached the front of the snaked like line

    that had been created, I realized I only had about 25 minutes before I was supposed to

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    Willis 2

    meet my friends to retrieve our tickets. With panic once again setting in, I made it as far

    as entering my PIN code just to see the same message on the screen as before. I

    desperately looked around for a familiar face to help me out of this mess and saw no one

    in the sea of irritated looking students due to my holding up of the line. I quietly

    apologized as I sheepishly walked as far away from the ATM as I could, and pulled out

    my Blackberry as a last hope of maybe getting in touch with someone to help me.

    With now only 15 minutes left until I had to be across campus, and after reaching

    all of my friends voicemails, a feeling of defeat came over me. What am I supposed to

    do? Why cant anyone answer their phone when I actually need them to? Thinking Ishould just try and get over to the football stadium instead of wasting time, I found my

    iPod Touch in my purse and used my University of Notre Dame Map application to

    navigate me in the right direction.

    As I arrived right on time, still with no money in hand, I was greeted with

    exuberant and spirited faces on my friends, excited to see that the last link of our group

    had made it into line. After sharing the bad news, I could now see the same expressions

    of worry and panic that I had been experiencing come to life on their faces. Then, to

    break the tense silence, my friend Jessica casually suggested, Just call your parents,

    theyll know what to do. That was the last thing that had crossed my mind. I stared back

    at my friend with slight distain and remorse that I had as a college student I had to depend

    on my parents. As an incoming freshman, there were several aspects of college life that

    motivated me to mark the days off my calendar until I got to leave, the main one being

    the sense of gained independence. There would be no more of my mom reminding me to

    make my bed, and no one telling me to finish my assignments before watching my

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