In one of my grad school classes, a fellow student from St. Lucia told us that the only access her family had to clean water was a 20 minute walk away from her house.
"Well, I feel lazy," I said out loud, half joking, half trying to prove a point. "I complain when I'm brushing my teeth, my electric toothbrush runs out of batteries, and I have to walk to the other room to get the spare." I expected other classmates to nod in agreement and share their own Lazy American stories. But everyone just stared at me. An awkward turtle would have been appropriate. Or, even better, a giant firstworldproblems hashtag, projected on the wall over my head.
I'm generally not a lazy person, but I will admit to end of the night toothbrush laziness. I'll also admit to having complained, on several occasions, about this impending problem: After we move, when I have to select my state from a dropdown menu, there will be choices. I won't just be able to select "L" and hit enter. I'll have to scroll down through five states after typing "M".
And to think I've taken this for granted all these years. Residents of Delaware, Georgia, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Utah -- as well as those of you who live in the first state alphabetically under each letter -- take a few moments the next time you're selecting your state from a dropdown menu and appreciate the ease.
When you're done, I'll probably still be scrolling through Maryland.
I'll miss you... archive:
Actually, sometimes we Pennsylvanians have to scroll past Palau. And you know, it's the not knowing whether you'll have to scroll or not that can make things so confusing. #firstworldproblems :)
ReplyDeleteAm I supposed to know more about Palau than I did before Googling it? You would think, if it's taking up space in our dropdown menus, I would have heard of it.
DeleteI'm up to speed now, though!
haha Vee is right - half the time Palau is there and I'm not paying attention and hit enter and when I'm confirming what I typed up I get so confused.
ReplyDeleteBeing from Missouri (and heading back! eek!) I know what you mean. I kinda have it memorized how many times I need to hit "M" before I can hit enter ;)
Here's a trick I learned to eliminate scrolling - once you drop-down the menu, click the first letter of the state. The first state with that initial letter will be highlighted. Click the same first letter as many times as you need to highlight your state and let go. It will be selected. Mine, New Jersey, takes five clicks, which is still onerous!
ReplyDeleteI'm learning so much from these replies! That's a great tip.
DeleteAs a resident of New York, I can tell you it is no picnic scrolling through the list of "N" states, but I'd take it over a 20 minute walk for water any day ;-P
ReplyDeletetouche!
DeleteI always have to hit "T" twice. Damn you, Tennessee.
ReplyDeleteGo California!!!! Haha.
ReplyDeleteThat's true. I do love that about California.
ReplyDeleteHa - I never really thought about this but did actually notice a change filling out online forms after I moved from Michigan to Ohio... oh, the ease.
ReplyDeleteFor this reason (and this reason only) I miss living in Alabama. Always first on the list.
ReplyDelete