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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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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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