Every morning I leave my place of residence at 7:30 a.m. in order to arrive at ETSU at 7:50 for my GA position.
One thing I have noticed in these morning commutes is that it provides a great opportunity for my coffee and I to get in the right mindset to conquer the world that day.
While this objective is not frequently accomplished, I believe the 20-minute drive is a good way to just be alone and think, something that we all seem to have a hard time doing in our fast paced society.
On rare occasion, I put thinking aside and let the radio give me the motivation to tackle my day. Most times, when commercials and talking are taking place instead of music, that is my que to change the station. But the topic of interest that was being discussed this past Thursday caught my attention.
The two DJs were telling about a concert that they went to the night before with some friends. They were given free company tickets to the show, but the parking lot was 1.5 miles away, and everyone was shuttled in on golf carts for $1 a person. They accepted the ride, but when they went to pay for the services, they could not. Between the 5 of them, they could not come up with $5 in cash, and the shuttle service was not accepting credit cards.
I began to think of similar stories my peers have told me and even found myself in similar situations. Our society has changed so rapidly over the years. Even when I was young, you would never leave the house without a little cash. Now, however, it seems to be the new norm to carry only debit card.
While it is true that almost every business has adapted to this change and offer credit or debit card options to their customers, what are we going to do in the rare instance that cash is the only currency accepted?
While the story of the concert is not that big a deal, what if we come across issues that are much more serious? I recall an instance sophomore year when I was going to hike Buffalo Mountain and was ran off the road. I was forced to take shelter in one of mother nature’s ditches. Once I assessed the situation and received the full experience of that ditch, I soon discovered that a wrecker service was my only hopes of getting back on the road. So I made the phone call and after some price haggling, luckily I had enough cash to cover the service, as he did not take credit cards either.
I think it’s easy for us as millennials to think inconvenient circumstances will never come our way and that there is nothing that we can’t handle with the technology we have available to us, but the fact of the matter is that sometimes we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place, and carrying a little cash in case of emergency could save us of a miserable experience.
