OPINION: Thank goodness for modern technology

Last weekend, I made the long trek up to my hometown in Wisconsin for the Easter holiday. While I’ve had family come to visit me, this was the first time I’ve been home since Christmas. It’s been a busy couple of weeks, so as I was getting ready for the seven-hour drive Friday, I had a lot on my mind.

I made sure to bring everything I knew I’d need to celebrate my sister’s birthday and a little get-well present for my grandma, who had just left the hospital. I brought some items my family had forgotten when they came to visit me and plenty of hydration for the drive. As I started out on Cherry Street, I felt pretty proud of myself for remembering everything. This, of course, was some not-so-subtle foreshadowing.

About three hours in, I started looking for a gas station. It had been a pretty good trip so far and I was almost through the entire My Chemical Romance discography. However, when I pulled in next to the gas pump, I made a horrible realization - I didn’t have my purse. In all my worries and thinking that morning, I had forgotten the most important thing. I had no money, no license, no - gasp - lactaid pills.

As I sat in my car with about an eighth of a tank of gas left, money was the primary concern. If this had been 50, 25, even 10 years ago, I would have been in major trouble. I’m not quite sure what I would have done, maybe called my mom and have her read her credit card number over the phone to the cashier to pay? Or would I have to beg cash off people until I had enough to either turn around and make it the three hours back to Creston, or continue on another four hours to home?

Thankfully, online banking and phones have made situations like this a lot less dire. After some momentary panic, I remembered I could add my credit card to my Apple Pay wallet on my phone. It took me maybe five minutes to get it added, and that’s only because I couldn’t scan the actual card, instead manually entering in all the information.

Again, I was lucky that at a gas station that accepted tap payments rather than some other general gas station. After grabbing a quick lunch and putting $30 of gas in the tank, I continued on my way to Wisconsin.

I called my mom and asked if she could pick me up some cash on her way home from work, while also letting my friend know we would no longer be able to go out for drinks that night thanks to my lack of license. I also went out of my way to drive much closer to the speed limit, as getting pulled over would cause just another complication to my unfortunate scenario.

Though not everything that weekend went as planned, I was still able to get by thanks to modern technology. This was not the only time technology came into play on the positive side that weekend. There’s the obvious navigation and entertainment aspects for my drive, but there’s plenty of other things I noticed because of my forgetfulness.

Between Easter, celebrating my sister’s birthday and visiting my grandma, I had a packed weekend. To get everything done required a lot of communication throughout the day. Maybe people before cell phones just didn’t get as much done each day? I was constantly calling and texting different people to coordinate times and places in order to see everyone in the same day.

In the same vein, my family was able to get a lot more planned for the future because of this technology. I’m not someone who is going to carry around a giant calendar filled with all my meetings, holidays and other commitments. Luckily, that’s all stored in my phone and I’m able to figure out which days my family can get together for a call to plan a vacation or see if I’m available for my great-aunt and uncle’s anniversary party.

Most days the miracle of modern technology is something I overlook, taking for granted how different things would be in my life without it. However, this weekend reminded me to be grateful for the technology we have, whether it be in paying for gas with my phone or typing this on a computer rather than a typewriter.