Whenever I see people on their phones walking around campus, shutting themselves off from the outside world, I always shake my head and mentally chide them for being so enslaved to technology.

However, I know that I am a hypocrite because every time I find myself walking on campus I always have an iPod blasting music in my ears.

I decided to try going a few weeks without using an iPod when I am on campus, and though I did catch myself using it a couple of times, I managed to go a considerable length of time without the device that I realized was keeping me from fully immersing myself in the campus environment.

The first couple of times I tried going sans music I felt weird. I chose to recognize this weirdness and consider how alarming it is.

It should be disturbing how uncomfortable I felt going a mere few minutes without irrelevant noise standing between the world and I.

To combat this feeling I found I have a tendency to keep my head down to distance myself from the awkwardness.

It defeats the purpose of my experiment to do so, however, as there is very little to appreciate in dirty concrete sidewalks. Instead, I made myself look forward and embrace my own existence in my surroundings.

An interesting side effect of this sort of determination is how much more eye contact I made with strangers.

It felt counterintuitive to make people feel less confused, but instead of averting my eyes, I just gave a simple friendly smile. It has been my experience that everyone smiles back when they are genuinely smiled at.

Finally, once I moved past the awkward phase I began to find the magic of this experiment.

I started noticing things on campus I never had before, I found some of my best ideas came to me while walking, and I started restoring my faith in people as I took note of little acts of kindness students on our campus do every day that go unappreciated.

Little things like actually hearing people laughing with their friends or watching strangers hold the door open for each other made my day.  

I found out more about what was going on around campus and heard about events, activities and opportunities that I didn’t know our campus has to offer.

Not listening to music for a fraction of my time spent on campus has had a huge impact on me. 

It’s a little, seemingly insignificant change that is well worth the effort. I encourage every student to try it at least once before they graduate.

Kaycie Brauer  is a Senior English major.  She can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].