By: Michael SengmongÂ
The first hour was media based. When I got home from school I grabbed my chipotle I got earlier in the day and turned on my TV to watch Modern Family on Hulu. I wasn’t really paying attention to it though because I was eating and also answering snaps on snapchat. Opening about ten snaps that were just their faces and then returning a snap with just my face. I also watched people’s stories on snapchat and saw that I was added to someone’s private story that I barely even know. I then switched through the apps like instagram and tiktok. I got a new follower from someone I met a day ago through a friend, but we already knew each other because we have matched on Tinder before. I followed him back and then continued on tiktok which I spent basically half my hour on because time goes by so fast on tiktok. Sometimes I will say that I am only going to watch a couple, then end up match a movies worth of them. I was still watching Modern family and then when it ended my hour was over.
The second hour was spent on a hike in Great Falls. When I drove there I put my phone in my bag so wouldn’t be tempted to take pictures or go on snapchat while walking along the trail. Once I was there, I realized I should have gone somewhere more natural because it was pretty crowded. But I still went along through the path. I didn’t really have hiking shoes so I could feel every little pebble I stepped on, which was kind of annoying but not too much. I also would get sand from the manmade paths in my shoe from just walking. But once I hiked further and more away from people all I could hear were the bugs, birds, and the water moving from the river. It was really nice to just sit on these rocks that were near the edge overlooking the water. It was pretty calming just watching the little swirls of white bubbles and watching people from afar doing what people do. It was pretty hot and humid but when you are hiking through the path and trying to figure out where the actual path is, you forget the heat. I saw some pretty cool looking rock structures where you can see basically the history of the rock from all the lines it has.
What I learned from the first hour is that sometimes I do random things for no reason at all but just to pass time. Certain things like snapping pictures of myself, watching random people’s stories, wondering why someone followed me, etc. All those things really don’t matter and if I told someone maybe in their 30’s, they’d probably be confused why we just snap pictures of our face back and forth for 234 days. But it’s not like I don’t find enjoyment in these things. I like seeing people that snap me, it makes me feel like connected to them more, I like seeing what people do with their lives and I like being updated. Most of these activities make me feel like a regular person. The second hour made me realized that I need to go out more because sometimes seeing all these cool structures makes me feel less like I am in a routine. In nature things seem to be a little bit random too like sometimes you’ll see weird rock structures or a pool of calm water next to waterfalls. From this experience, I realized I like the randomness of both media and nature.