Ever got your smartphone stolen? Or maybe you lost it somewhere? I've lost several phones over the years and it sucks when it happens to be your favorite, so let me tell you all about it.
In the beginning...
Back when smartphones weren't a thing yet and the handy dandy Nokia's were popular, I was still a student and got phones for free. It didn't really matter to me then if I had a phone or not but my relatives wanted me to have one so I can be easy to contact. My uncle's wife would give me phones because hey there was always a new model coming out from time to time and who else should get their family's old ones, right?
Photo credit: Webdesigner Depot via giantbomb.com
Let's say I was kind of lucky to have been getting them phones even if I kept losing them. The first 3 phones I lost in taxis, I think all three fell out of my pocket and I didn't notice it. I never really felt bad for losing them because I didn't buy any with my or my own family's money and all of them had small defects in their own way. Too bad I wasn't that into gratitude and such back then. All I thought then was being given hand me downs meant I was too poor for my own good. Self-pity ftw.
After I graduated from college, of course it meant no more free phones because I should be able to buy my own once I got a job. And I did get a job. After a few months, I bought my first phone. Wow, brand new. Really felt good you know, to buy your own phone with your own money. Wow. I don't remember what phone it was though.
One day, I went to work and realized oops, my phone fell out of my pocket in a jeepney. Imagine the "poor me," thoughts I kept thinking when I realized it was gone! Oh how I hate losing phones.
So of course I had to buy a new one. I decided to buy a Samsung phone, my very first touchscreen phone. It was a Brown Samsung Champ phone. It was just a cutey so I bought it.
Photo credit via Muamat.com
Unfortunately after a year or two, on my way to work it fell out of my pocket (AGAIN!), into a dark crevice inside a public van/FX. Stupid I know. I kept buying them small and handy touchscreen phones. Tsk.
And then I bought another phone, a small touchscreen phone of a relatively new entry phone brand in the Philippines then: HTC. When I bought it, I didn't even really like it. I just wanted to buy a phone then because how else will I be contacted by anyone? And guess what? I still have the damned phone now even if I don't like it that much.
After 2 years of having this HTC phone, the touchscreen feature began to have some issues so it was time to buy a new one.
Ohhh yesss here it comes.
My Acer smartphone was another love of my life phone. Hey it was Acer! I was able to use it for two years. It almost got lost at work twice, but twice I got it back! (Oh I love that company.) And then I lose it all because I challenged myself that I can live without my phone. Yeah and so it got stolen.
How did it happen? Well, because I just finished a meditation class, I was all happy and such like I had no problem in the world. On the way to ride a bus, I held my smartphone up in the air, like a shining beacon for all the world to see, checking my phone or texting someone, all the while thinking, "Oh, even if I lose my phone now, it wouldn't even matter."
And so the bus came and I squeezed my way through the crowd of people going into the bus. It was rush hour and too many people ride the buses haphazardly during this time like there was no tomorrow and until the bus gets full to the brim, er, up to the bus door. Anyway, my bag was open when I got inside the bus but I didn't think my phone would really be gone.
This was last November, the -Ber months or the Christmas season in the Philippines, the most likely time to get items stolen from you.
Only when I got home did I realize that yes, my phone was indeed gone, just like that. Only then did I agonize over losing it. Haha.
Really, I could stand to lose my phone when everything was in it? All the photos, including most of my artwork and of events I went to for the past two years, was in there! Even the recordings of the talks I went to that I haven't been able to upload yet, the notes I wrote, the unfinished stories that will never get published at all, the mini dear diaries and even the messages from various people over the 2 year period. Ohmygod. I lost all my important contacts/leads and also the ones I didn't care to save in my contacts but are still in my inbox. All the documents I downloaded and the...
Oh for God's sake I need to stop.
In Memoriam...
So yeah. Everytime I see any photo contest here in Steemit, I remember my stolen phone. Everytime I see an opportunity to post my digital artwork, I remember that oops, it was in my Acer phone. No I didn't use the cloud service because I was sure I wouldn't lose my phone at all.
One small change in thought made me lose it. Imagine that.
It even had the image of St. Anthony of Padua as wallpaper and yet the thief didn't get a conscience to return it.
Photo credit: Oscar Puigdevall via Flickr
I did everything to retrieve it but alas no it did not get back to me. I was calling it, my friends were calling it. I texted it and still nothing. Even used the Google thing to hopefully find it or disable it and such but I doubt it had any effect on wiping everything in it. The new owner even created a new gmail email in my account (which I already disconnected and of course I've tried to contact the person) but still it did not get back to me. Of course I changed all my passwords for security. The other apps, even the game apps, I downloaded then didn't have any password in it so of course I lost all the data. Ouch.
Hopefully because I have shared all of this with you, I might be able to move on from losing my most important smartphone ever. It had everything in it and I didn't back it up at all. Some apps still had my info and such in it so at least I felt a bit better when I got a new phone and the info was still there when I downloaded the app.
My New Phone: Xiaomi Red 4A
Photo credit: gsmarena.com
I bet I won't be losing this Xiaomi smartphone like my HTC one that's for sure. My HTC phone, even with the damaged screen and casing, is still alive and kicking after 4 years. I bet my Xiaomi, with it's cracked screen that I blogged about here, would be here to stay too because I don't like it.
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