Making the ordinary extraordinary

Stopping to smell the flowersI found it DeBotton’s chapter “On Habit,” to be one of the most interesting pieces we’ve read from him. I loved the concept of the “travel mindset” and of “room travel.” I think that far too often people, including myself, slip into a routine where things that were once marvelous become ordinary, or even worse, boring.

Just recently, a week or so before reading this piece, I was hanging out with my host brother Mickey and we went out for a walk. He dropped something off at a friend’s house, and afterwards when I asked him what he wanted to do, he said just walk around the city for a bit. At first, I thought, walk around the city? Why? What for? I often think about walking around the city as a pain, something I have to do in between other activities. Getting from my house to school. Getting from school to a park. Getting from a park to a museum, etc… In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time that I had just walked around just to walk around. As we walked and talked, I started to look at buildings that I pass regularly, buildings that I see almost everyday, and really appreciate them. It’s easy, especially in a big city, to slip into “tunnel vision” (just look at EVERYONE in New York). Everybody’s talking on their cell phone, living their lives, getting from place to place, each person in their own universe. It felt so good to just walk and chat and look around. The buildings here are incredible. There are so many amazing things to see and appreciate. I realized how jaded I had become to this spectacular city, in only 3 plus months! Not that I was/am bored (on the contrary, I’m loving it here more and more), but just that I had slipped into my own “tunnel vision” when I walked around. I’ve made it my goal to do more exploring, both of new neighborhoods and my own, and really look at and appreciate the beauty that Buenos Aires has to offer.

I think that this is the “travel mindset” that DeBotton was talking about. When we travel, we take in so much more than in our day-to-day lives and we appreciate things that we might otherwise pass over. In many ways, the travel mindset is a way of “stopping and smelling the flowers,” and I believe that’s something that we could all use more of.