I recently re-upped my cell phone contract with my carrier, whom I am quite happy with for now. I could switch to my boyfriend’s carrier, well, could have, but I decided that hysterical kickball commercials aside, I am not so into that particular company after having had one of my roommates cheated by their customer service in college. The ol’ “we’re going to have to charge you a fee for making us charge you a fee” bit.

But. He talks with his sisters, who are scattered about the US, on their phones by the same carrier, so they are not charged long distance, simply minute usage. And since he is the one I talk to the most, I would be in far less danger of going over in a month if I had the same carrier as he does.

Yet…the dislike of that carrier is so deep, I will not even conceive of switching. I saw how many hours it took my friend to get her stuff fixed, I saw the $600 if cost her that month, a college student, to deal with that problem. Yeah, she talked on the cell phone too much, but God. $600. Whew.

But Tony has not experienced this, so there is no need for him to switch. And calls to me are just minutes either way. Both ways, actually, but why count. If you start counting all the ways cell phone service is unfair, you will give up your cell phone and go back to scratching things on blocks of slate.

I digress. I feel as though since I didn’t join their cell-carrier-family that I might be seen as setting myself apart, making a stand for my independence, dodging that commitment bullet.

This is a sign of the times. Your lack of a same-carrier contract could mean your relationship is doomed. Probably not doomed. But certainly it means something that you don’t want to conform to the family’s wishes re: said cell phone contract. Or maybe I am just paranoid.