I rarely get panic attacks. In fact, I could almost say I never get them. almost. I took my phone to the atrium at work so I could eat lunch and text/call/fiddle with my phone. Wellllllll I finished eating, got up to throw away my trash, and saw one of my co-workers. So I stopped to chat for about 10 minutes, said goodbye and then headed back downstairs to my office with no reception. I reached for my pocket to take my phone out and drop it back on my desk when, to my shock, NO PHONE.
And in that split second, that dreaded feeling of OMFG NO MY WHOLE LIFE IS ON THAT THING came over me. My bank account is tied to it, my savings/checking/loans are all clearly visible through a little widget on one of the screens, all of my bills are paid through my phone, all of my credit cards are stored on it, literally, every piece of financial information I have is on that thing, not to mention all of my personal messages, email, and accounts. Things that aren't really for my eyes only, but I don't want other people reading my stuff.
So my brain immediately throws me into full scale panic mode. I throw everything in and around my office into chaos, pace up and down the hallway (while an xmas party is going on for another division at my work) and ask random people as they pass if they found a phone. I run back up to the second floor of the Atrium like an Olympic sprinter to the table I was sitting at, nope. Not there. Someone took my f*cking phone. I am just about in tears at this point, because I generally know what this means: Goodbye to whatever you lost.
I go back to my office, eyes glossy and call security, because it's the last hail mary thing anyone can do, is check the lost & found. So I stifle back my labored breathing as the lady answers the phone and I ask if anyone turned in a phone in the last 30 minutes, and as I wait to hear the "No I'm sorry." She tells me someone just dropped it off.
Maybe it's because of where I work, or maybe there are still people left in the world with a conscious.
THANK YOU KIND STRANGER. My life is not over yet. In a place with over 3,500 employees, I didn't expect to see it again. I think I can feel my heart rate returning to normal now.
And in that split second, that dreaded feeling of OMFG NO MY WHOLE LIFE IS ON THAT THING came over me. My bank account is tied to it, my savings/checking/loans are all clearly visible through a little widget on one of the screens, all of my bills are paid through my phone, all of my credit cards are stored on it, literally, every piece of financial information I have is on that thing, not to mention all of my personal messages, email, and accounts. Things that aren't really for my eyes only, but I don't want other people reading my stuff.
So my brain immediately throws me into full scale panic mode. I throw everything in and around my office into chaos, pace up and down the hallway (while an xmas party is going on for another division at my work) and ask random people as they pass if they found a phone. I run back up to the second floor of the Atrium like an Olympic sprinter to the table I was sitting at, nope. Not there. Someone took my f*cking phone. I am just about in tears at this point, because I generally know what this means: Goodbye to whatever you lost.
I go back to my office, eyes glossy and call security, because it's the last hail mary thing anyone can do, is check the lost & found. So I stifle back my labored breathing as the lady answers the phone and I ask if anyone turned in a phone in the last 30 minutes, and as I wait to hear the "No I'm sorry." She tells me someone just dropped it off.
Maybe it's because of where I work, or maybe there are still people left in the world with a conscious.
THANK YOU KIND STRANGER. My life is not over yet. In a place with over 3,500 employees, I didn't expect to see it again. I think I can feel my heart rate returning to normal now.
