As I arrived at Fair Weather Farms this semester for the first time, I was going over a final check list in my head: Sneakers? Check. Water? Check. Hat? Check. Phone?

And at that point, I was faced with the love-hate relationship of having a smart phone. I love taking pictures of nature, and without my phone I couldn’t take pictures to show off to my friends and family or to make a clever post on Instagram; however, I didn’t have pockets on my running shorts big enough to hold my phone, and bringing it meant having one more thing to be responsible for. For once during my stressful first week of dropping and adding classes and getting back into the swing of life at school, I just wanted to be outside and give myself an opportunity to clear my mind. So, I ditched my phone, locked the car, and headed towards the first adventure this class would bring me.

Once we began the tour of Fair Weather, I found the best way to escape from the hectic reality that surrounded me at school was to listen to Nancy Bentley, the owner of the farm, speak about everything from the history of the farm to healthy and invasive insects affecting different plants and vegetables. She could point to anything on the farm and tell us things I’ve never heard of, or even thought about before. I let my mind wander as we walked from the fields filled with potatoes, kale, pumpkin vines, weeds, and flowers towards her home situated just beyond that, looking at everything around me in awe and amazement that this was all right in front of me, and how glad I was that I didn’t have an annoying notification vibrating my phone to distract me from that moment.

It was then that I truly decided deep down how much I dislike having a phone with me at all times, distracting me from living in the moment and paying attention to the things around me. Sometimes it feels downright ridiculous when I’m focusing more on getting an amazing picture of a sunset than just looking at the sky and appreciating the moment for what it is, or when I’m hanging out with a friend but hung up on the conversation I’m carrying via text with the next person. I’m no longer being present with the person I’m spending time with, and suddenly my mom saying, “Stop texting at the dinner table. It’s rude,” doesn’t sound as unreasonable as I once thought.

Do we ever take a moment to disconnect from technology, even from friends and family, and connect with ourselves? Sadly, I think most young adults, and even teenagers (hell, probably some adults that know how to navigate Facebook), would answer no to this question, just because technology is so vital to the way we communicate with each other, but would you consider it more vital than being fully aware and in-tune with yourself and your own personal needs? If more people stopped to think about it like that, I think more of us would find time to disconnect and take a walk, visit a farm, or sit by a river to focus on the physical, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional aspects of ourselves.

Further, I believe if more people got into the habit of being alone in nature with no phone reminding them of their responsibilities, obligations, or stressors, we would be more secure with ourselves mentally and physically. If we spend time outside taking in the sights, sounds, and feelings of nature it becomes possible to be more aware and respectful of it. People seldom think about the fact that we are mammals and that we have the same basic needs as all other creatures on Earth. We are biological beings surrounded by a biological world that we are directly a product of, and the artificial world we have created through social constructs. The more in tune with the biological aspect of life that we live, and less so the artificial part, the more we will understand our place within that physical world that we are a part of.