Call Your Grandmother, If You Still Remember Her Number

At this point in my life, being dependent on a cell phone for over a decade, and a smartphone for almost as long, there are very few numbers that I remember. Three to be exact: My best friend, my brother, and my grandmother. The latter because she's had the same landline number for as many years as I'm old. And you know why that's a great thing? Because that means in any scenario, anywhere in the world, I'll always be able to call her to check in, and make sure she's doing okay. That means as much to me as it does to her.

When I was stuck in Morocco during 9/11 I collect called her to see how she was. When I broke my arm in Istanbul, I Skyped to tell her I wouldn't be penning her a postcard anytime soon. When I was running five minutes late to pick her up for dinner the other night, my iPhone was the messenger to make sure she didn't freak out on me (she has a thing for punctuality). She doesn't care how I call her, the important thing is that I remember to do it.

Whose numbers do you have memorized?

Illustration by Emily Anderson

This post is part of the GOOD community's 50 Building Blocks of Citizenship—weekly steps to being an active, engaged global citizen. This week: Learn and share your neighbors' contact information. Follow along and join the conversation at good.is/citizenship and on Twitter at #goodcitizen.