Wander Where The Wifi Is Weak

• Matilda Georgette Withers, Grade 12
• Short Story
• 2021

I want to wander where the wifi is weak.

They try to capture life into one click of a button, one swipe of the finger and one like of a photo. But how can you capture love, hate, culture, family, nature, death, fun, loss in just one click? Life is too significant, too grand of a thing to capture. How can we do so if we can’t even put what we feel into words? That tingle you get when it’s finally spring and you squish your bare toes into the dense green grass, filling your nose with fresh, crisp air. Or when you fall over and graze your knee and your Mum holds you in her arms and kisses it better. When you’re laughing so hard with someone that your stomach aches. When a massive storm hits and the darkness consumes your house. Your first day at school, where your tummy flips like a gymnast. When the family pet dies and there’s this lump in your throat that won’t seem to go. When you’ve been practicing your cartwheels forever and you finally get it, legs straight and everything.

There are ups and downs of course, every bit etched into your brain. Everyone all over the world have different stories to tell. I can only dream of what yours is. But I can tell you mine.

Mine begins with cool, clear mornings and crispy frost, cold hands and visible breath. Loving family and giggly friends, stern teachers and long bus rides. A bit of loss here, a few tears over there. I lived on a farm in a big, white house with ultimate freedom. I went swimming in deep puddles, attended tea parties under trees and built houses in hedges. I learnt to live life for what it is, then stepped on a boat, destined for the city. This chapter showed me friendship, busy lives and homesickness. Before, life was simple, but now it’s preparing me for this big wide world. We packed up and moved to a small country town that doesn’t see much change. Then I got on a bus and was finally granted my greatest wish of all, going to ‘real school’. I was exposed to cliques, boys and homework. I gained friends I lost friends, I learnt about algebra and enzymes.

That’s my story in short, leaving out the many experiences yet to come. Not all bits of life are good or fun but every chapter has a purpose, a lesson in tow. But this is just one snippet of one persons life out of 7.7 billion, with different races, religions, cultures and backgrounds. Life is wonderful, scary and exhilarating, there is no way we can grab all of that and “experience” it through the internet. Internet is one thing not the thing. Let’s see the world through our own eyes, not someone else’s. Collect all of those memories and share them with others, not on social media, in person.

Let’s wander where the wifi is weak.