We live in a country that believes in expediting everything; knowledge, time, money, resources, interactions -- everything.
In school you're supposed to work incredibly hard, sacrificing beautiful Sundays for days indoors with a 30 page study guide. You're supposed to spend 4 years cramming as much as you can into your head and stressing yourself out, all to find an 8-5 career that consumes the rest of your life as soon as you graduate.
Is this what we define as happiness, as "living the dream?" I get it. We need money to function. But who says you have to stress yourself out so much to learn everything. Why do we function this way? Why do we surpass spending more time getting to know others, ourselves, and this amazing world just so we can try to memorize pages of material.
I learned more while I was abroad than I have ever -- and will ever -- learn in a classroom or in a job. And yet, it feels somewhat impossible for not just me -- but others who studied abroad as well -- to apply what we've learned.
We have a society that puts expectations, dreams, norms, education, behavior, and characteristics into the tiniest, most rigid box that it can find. And for some reason, we all "enjoy" being in there. We all "enjoy" being incredibly busy as life just passes us by. We love foregoing interactions, not getting to know people.
We love racing to the finish line in life, and by the time we get there, we realize we never saw anything along the way -- we didn't see who we were passing, who was cheering for us, what was surrounding us. We just made it to the finish line, and received the medal, the reward, and the recognition.
In Morocco, the most distinct interaction that I remember was with a merchant who taught us how people shake hands. He said, Americans and European just shake hands, and drop their hands, they let the interaction and the moment fall. He said, WE shake hands and then put our hand over our hearts.
A complete stranger taught me so much, and was so personal with me. I think that really says a lot that I found more depth in an hour with a stranger, than I do with some people I've known for years.
So stop rushing. Open yourselves up. Let the world show you what it's made of, and show the world what you're made of, but do it slowly. Be timely. Don't rush to live.
In school you're supposed to work incredibly hard, sacrificing beautiful Sundays for days indoors with a 30 page study guide. You're supposed to spend 4 years cramming as much as you can into your head and stressing yourself out, all to find an 8-5 career that consumes the rest of your life as soon as you graduate.
Is this what we define as happiness, as "living the dream?" I get it. We need money to function. But who says you have to stress yourself out so much to learn everything. Why do we function this way? Why do we surpass spending more time getting to know others, ourselves, and this amazing world just so we can try to memorize pages of material.
I learned more while I was abroad than I have ever -- and will ever -- learn in a classroom or in a job. And yet, it feels somewhat impossible for not just me -- but others who studied abroad as well -- to apply what we've learned.
We have a society that puts expectations, dreams, norms, education, behavior, and characteristics into the tiniest, most rigid box that it can find. And for some reason, we all "enjoy" being in there. We all "enjoy" being incredibly busy as life just passes us by. We love foregoing interactions, not getting to know people.
We love racing to the finish line in life, and by the time we get there, we realize we never saw anything along the way -- we didn't see who we were passing, who was cheering for us, what was surrounding us. We just made it to the finish line, and received the medal, the reward, and the recognition.
In Morocco, the most distinct interaction that I remember was with a merchant who taught us how people shake hands. He said, Americans and European just shake hands, and drop their hands, they let the interaction and the moment fall. He said, WE shake hands and then put our hand over our hearts.
A complete stranger taught me so much, and was so personal with me. I think that really says a lot that I found more depth in an hour with a stranger, than I do with some people I've known for years.
So stop rushing. Open yourselves up. Let the world show you what it's made of, and show the world what you're made of, but do it slowly. Be timely. Don't rush to live.
No comments:
Post a Comment