For just a little while, the world goes away, yet for two hours, you’re a part of the world. What in the world does that mean? Think about that for a second. For just a little while, the world goes away, yet for just that little while, you’re a part of the world again.

As many of you probably know, I’m a part of the Galway High Drama Club. This past year, we put on “Into The Woods.” While we all worked our tails off, in the final few weeks of our rehearsals, our director, Mrs. Valente had noticed that we weren’t working to our full potential.

Being a part of a show demands a lot more than you think. Between lines, songs and dances, it gets tough. But being on stage isn’t always the hardest part. There always seems to be lot of downtime in between scenes. So what’s there to do while waiting backstage for your next scene? The natural thing for almost any teenager to do these days is whip out their phone and stare at the screen blankly for twenty minutes until they’re called on stage again. As Mrs. Valente put it, our phones led to an “epidemic of missed cues.” Put into simple terms, it caused a lot of actors to miss when they were supposed to be onstage. I cannot tell you how many times I saw our cast members sitting in the wings on their phones and miss their cues because they were too busy invested in a world they weren’t actually in to pay attention to the world they were in. And I’m not going to name any names or place the blame on anyone, because I was guilty of it too from time to time.

So in a pep talk/lecture from our faithful director, Mrs. Valente, we discussed the issues of focus and cell phones. She told us, one of the most important things we needed to do, was stop using our phones at rehearsal. From that, an inspiring event occurred. A few brave souls (by the names of Gabbi and Jose) led the Great Cell Phone Movement of 2015. Upon realizing that Mrs. Valente was right, in the sense that you can’t be focused if your nose is buried in your phone, they placed their phones on the table which Mrs. Valente sits at to direct us. I, with no hesitation, followed suit, as did the entirety of the club. After returning to our seats, I couldn’t help but stare at the ginormous pile of phones on the table. I have to say, it was probably the most productive rehearsal we had. Nobody was distracted and missed their cues. While waiting in the wings, instead of sitting on our phones, we went over lines, we watched the action onstage, we supported each other and for the first time, it felt like we were putting on a show.

I realize this story has only seemed relevant to Drama Club. That’s not how I intended it to be though. We live in an age where information and connection is available at our fingertips at lightning speed. That’s wonderful. Truly, it is. I enjoy it. But doesn’t it make you feel detached? Have you ever had a conversation face to face with a person and feel like you’re talking to a wall because they’re buried in their phones, talking to a person who is not physically there with them, ignoring the words that are coming from your actual, physically there mouth? There are a million and one examples I could give to get my point across, but it’s not important. What’s important is, putting the phone down for two hours is not going to kill you. Spending some time with the people who are actually with you, is what’s important. Taking an hour to do your homework without texting or checking your Facebook is what’s important. Talking with your parents for twenty minutes and telling them how your day was, asking them about their day, is what is important. Or taking two hours to to act and sing and make memories and put on an awesome, not just an okay show with people you love is what is important.

For a little while, the world goes away. When you put the phone down, you’re not connected to your favorite celebrities on Twitter, or your Grandma on Facebook, or your friends unnecessary 200 second long story on Snapchat. Put for just a little while, when you put the phone down, you’re a part of the world. The world surrounded with intriguing people and interesting conversations and spontaneous adventures and memories. The things, that hopefully in your book, are as important as they are in mine. Putting my phone down on the table in rehearsal for two hours, was a simple, yet empowering decision that hopefully everyone takes full advantage of, and experience the life happening around them.

Try something today…put your phone down and see what happens when you aren’t staring at a screen! Leave a comment and tell us about it!