OMG, I seriously have to share this with you guys real quick!!! ✨

Okay, listen. Yesterday I was having lunch with a friend downtown, sitting outside because the weather was way too nice not to, when she slid this tiny matte-black box across the table toward me. I honestly thought she’d bought jewelry. Inside was this little silver disc, smaller than I expected and almost ridiculously simple. Very GRACE, actually. Something incredibly complicated reduced to an object that looks like it belongs next to your phone and your earrings.

Then she told me what it was. A bud. She’d had hers fitted a few weeks ago, which obviously meant I immediately wanted to see where they’d put it. There’s almost nothing behind her ear now. A tiny mark if you know exactly where to look, but otherwise you would never guess she has anything implanted at all. Considering how much everyone has been talking about buds lately, I’d somehow expected the whole thing to look much more dramatic.

Naturally, my next question was what she could actually see. She laughed, because apparently everyone asks that. She couldn’t show me everything and wasn’t particularly interested in trying to explain the parts that are meant to stay private, but she did talk me through some of the basics. Places around town, public information, recommendations, scores. The strange part wasn’t really what was on the HUD. It was watching her use it. She never stopped talking to me or reached for anything. Every now and then her eyes would pause for half a second and I’d realize she was looking at something I couldn’t see.

Once you notice that, you suddenly start noticing it everywhere. A guy waiting for coffee, someone crossing the street, two women at the table next to us. Nobody looks like they’re using a device. They’re just looking. A few months ago, having something connected directly to your nervous system still sounded like something we’d be talking about for years. Now I’m beginning to suspect I’m already one of the weird people in Silverdale who doesn’t have one.

I also finally got an answer to something that’s been bothering me: you don’t charge it. Apparently the bud gets the tiny amount of energy it needs from the body itself. No cable, no battery percentage, no remembering to plug yourself in before bed. I realize that probably shouldn’t be the feature that impressed me most, but I already own enough things that complain when I forget to charge them.

Then my friend pushed the box back toward me and told me she’d brought it for me. Not to look at. Mine. That changed the mood a little. It’s easy to talk about buds when they’re something other people have. It’s slightly different when there’s one sitting in front of you and somebody is asking when you’re going to make an appointment.

I’m curious. Obviously I am. Part of me really wants to know what everyone else seems to be seeing, and I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a bit of FOMO involved. More and more of my friends are connected now, and lately there have been moments where a whole conversation seems to move half a step ahead of me. Nobody is rude about it. If anything, that makes it more noticeable.

But this isn’t a new phone. You don’t replace it next year because the camera got better. Once it’s fitted, it’s part of you. So the little black box is sitting on my dresser right now. I’ve picked it up several times already and put it back down again.

No promises yet. But I have a feeling this isn’t the last time I’m going to write about it. ✨