Why Social Media is Actually NOT the Devil

So, I've been seeing a lot of articles and videos and memes about how technology is overtaking our lives and making us out of touch with reality. Just for the record, I completely agree that looking down at your phone or your computer or your ipad every two seconds, rather than talking to people who are physically right next to you, is not a good thing. Facebook and Twitter and Instagram can definitely distract from meaningful human interaction.

But I would also like to point out that those very same channels of social media can also be the means of creating meaningful human interaction.

Example: When my husband left for the Army's basic training, I started following a Facebook page for his specific battery. Through that page I was able to see pictures of things that they were doing and also comments from other wives and moms of the other soldiers. I think it kept a lot of us more sane being able to feel like we weren't so alone in our own journey through basic training.

One of the other wives from the battery reached out and added me on Facebook. We chatted a bit and found that we had quite a bit in common, and that our husbands were going to the same post after basic training. This last week we both went to see our husbands graduate. We both got there a day early and were able to spend some time together before Family Day and graduation. That night that we both said goodbye to our husbands again, we really needed some company. This new found friend came over to my hotel and we talked for nearly an hour, trying to keep each other's minds off our husbands' absence.

That friendship started on Facebook, but fostered a wonderful "real" human interaction, one I was definitely in need of.

I understand that all good things need moderation. But I would like to suggest that while social media can surely distract from human interaction, it can also create it, and even greatly enhance it. It really just depends on how you use it.

Make sure that social media is a means to an end--that end being meaningful human interaction. Let it lead to get togethers and playdates with other stay-at-home moms. Or reconnecting with an old friend from elementary school and finding that you have way more in common than you might have thought. Or creating family groups where you can stay aware of things that are happening with loved ones.

Don't let social media replace human interaction; let it create and enhance it!

Inconvenient Love

This trip to Peru has been one of the most emotionally taxing trips I have ever made. It's probably because of the three times I've been to Peru, this is the first time without Diego, who is the entire reason I ever came to Peru in the first place. Also, being here has got me thinking a lot about the past, specifically about Diego's past, and how his life has so drastically changed since we got married.

When I pass the university where my husband studied law for two years, I feel a sudden twinge of guilt. When his friends ask me where he is and why he isn't with us, I feel like it is my fault.

Two nights ago, for the first time since Diego left, I had a difficult depression episode. I cried so hard I nearly woke Lucia up several times. I had to practice breathing exercises to keep myself calm. My depression logic went like this:

"If Diego hadn't married you, he never would have left his family, friends, and home. He would be here right now, probably graduated with his law degree and applying to some dream job of his. He definitely wouldn't be off in a foreign country's military."

Before, when these depressive thoughts came to my mind, I always had Diego there to soothe my worries. That night I thought instead,

"Well, he's not here now, and it's your fault."

Depression logic. Doesn't make sense, but these are the things I think.

I survived the night by focusing on breathing mostly. The next day I decided to talk to my father-in-law about my concerns.

My father-in-law is an amazing man, and very wise. Among other wise counsel, he told me this,

"Diego knew what he was doing when he married you. When he chose to love you, he knew he would be giving up a lot."

It took nearly the whole day to finally sink in. I guess I've always thought that love is a choice, and if it isn't the right choice, you shouldn't make it. But along with the "right" choice, in the back of my mind it also meant the most "convenient" choice. Obviously, love is very seldom convenient. You often have to change some plans here and there. But not your entire life. Right?

It finally hit me that Diego's love for me HAD changed all of his plans. All of the plans and ideas he'd had since he was a little boy. But he chose that love. And as a result he has a very different life than he had planned. But I have to remember why he did it. And the amazing life we have now. Different, but amazing nonetheless.

Passports, Visas, didn't we do this already?

Oh international traveling. Life would be some much less interesting without you.

Diego and I have been seriously thinking about going to visit Peru in December. Diego finally has his residency and its high time that my in-laws meet their only grandchild. We started looking at flights and found some nice prices.

Then all of the sudden we realized...Lucia doesn't have a passport. My little 12-pound bundle of love isn't allowed to leave the USA yet. She needs a $120 passport. Then we had the ingenious idea to just get her Peruvian passport. Peruvian passports only cost $35. She could go to Peru with a her Peruvian passport. And since she has her Peruvian birth certificate, getting her passport should only take about 6 weeks.

The hard part would be coming back. Because even though she was born in the US, if she doesn't have a passport, she won't be allowed to come back to the US. I laughed a little thinking about Lucia being detained in the airport and not allowed back to officially enter the USA. I guess the same would happen to me, if for some reason I didn't have a passport coming back, right?

Looks like we're going to have to cave in and get her a US passport. And THEN we can go to Peru. :)