This past week I was fortunate enough to spend a portion of my mid-semester break in Barcelona, Spain. Being vastly different than my little Florence I found myself constantly looking up, taking in the newness of this undiscovered city I was faced with. Throughout this quest to discover as much as I could in such a large city, I also discovered some things that have been right in front of me my whole life, but that I had not yet contemplated until now.
On my way to the Florence airport for my first flight of the day to Rome, I was graced with a taxi driver who quite-honestly made me fear for my life. He was driving way too fast, he was texting his buddies and it felt like I was on a Six Flags ride that I couldn't get off of soon enough. At one point, maybe after his 9th or 10th text message, it occurred to me that I should probably buckle up. But I didn't.
Once I survived and was able to get off of the roller coaster ride, I had a quick and simple process of getting through security and to my gate for my flight to Rome. I took off and landed in less than an hour, had a nice lunch at the Fiumicino airport and was onto my next flight to Barcelona in no time. As I sat and waited for my flight to depart from the gate, I began to doze off as I always seem to do during this time of the flight. However, within a few moments I was brought back to reality by the short, brown-haired flight attendant giving safety instructions a few rows in front of me. As she demonstrated what to do in the event that cabin pressure suddenly dropped, I realized that I have never actually listened to what these flight attendants are saying. I thought to myself. 'Would you even know what to do if that happened, or if we had an emergency ocean-landing, or even worse, a crash?" My answer was no.
A few days into my trip I was walking through the city with two of my friends from my program whom I stayed with in Barcelona, as well as our close friend who is studying there. In many European countries I have noticed that there are red, sometimes yellow, and green lights for walking across a sidewalk. One of my friends and I were walking behind the other two having a conversation about who knows what, and the other two were preparing to cross a busy street. Following my friend's lead, I was about a step into the road when I realized there was a car coming and I quickly pulled my friends back to our side of the road. I thought to myself, 'Why the heck didn't you look both ways?' I had no answer for myself other than, 'I just assumed Sam did.’
I had a few similar experiences throughout the rest of my time in Barcelona, but these three seemed to stick out the most. Apart from each other they just seemed like moments of naivety; however, once they gathered in my mind I began to examine these moments as one-in-the-same. Now that I have provided you with the context, I now invite you to follow my thought process on this series of events...
Are we as human beings born as natural 'trusters?' Those who instinctively want to rely on others and feel that others are just as instinctively honest and trustworthy? Or is it that we have an ignorance inside of us that we simply cannot shake? One that creates a sense of egotism that allows us to believe we're invincible to the ills and dangers of the world? I like to think the prior is true; however, in this day and age it has become increasingly difficult to believe that the people around us are trustworthy, making it impossible to rely on others for our own well-being.
So that leaves us with the latter hypothesis - ignorance. There is an unfortunate group of people out there that walk through the world feeling as though they are untouchable. This can be good or this can be bad. In most cases it is quite problematic. When a person believes they are better than most they ignore the most crucial components in life, such as listening to life-or-death safety instructions or looking both ways when crossing the street.
But what about the rest of us? It can't be true that everyone thinks so highly of themselves all of the time. My answer is this: those of us who neither distrust others, nor possess the arrogance of so many others are simply comfortable. We have grown accustom to the rights and wrongs of the world and have learned to go along with them. But more importantly, we've learned when these rights and wrongs can very slightly be dismissed. If you've traveled via taxi enough times in your life then you probably know that they are actually quite experienced drivers and that buckling up doesn't feel so crucial, and that's OK. If you've flown on a plane enough times you may feel as though you don't need to listen to Mrs. Flight Attendant recite her script yet another time, and that's OK. And if you've known certain people for long enough then you know it's safe to cross the street with them without tilting your head three times from left to right, and that's OK. It's all about comfort. For some people that may mean buckling up in a taxi and listening to the flight attendant every time she goes over the safety procedures. For others it may mean they don't even notice how fast a taxi driver is going.
One thing I've learned to do more of since starting my abroad experience is to ask myself if I'm comfortable. And I don't mean the type of comfortable you feel when you're wearing your favorite sweatshirt or surrounded by people you know, but the kind of comfortable you start to feel over time. Being comfortable can be an incredible feeling - comfortable at work, comfortable with your friends, comfortable with your image - but after enough time comfort can cause you to get stuck. Stuck in a routine, one than can cloud your view on what you're doing or looking at.
I think that what I'm getting at is that it can be quite enjoyable to feel comfortable and to feel at ease about just about every aspect in life; however, being too comfortable can prevent us from thinking about things when we should be. You should never be too comfortable in life. Always challenge yourself and take a few steps outside of your comfort zone. Always say yes to trying new things. Always step back and ask yourself, 'Am I comfortable?'
It's crazy to think that three inconspicuous occurrences during my travels in Barcelona could lead to such an elaborate thought process on what those things might mean. However, it's allowed me reply "no" to that very important question. And that makes me very happy.
On my way to the Florence airport for my first flight of the day to Rome, I was graced with a taxi driver who quite-honestly made me fear for my life. He was driving way too fast, he was texting his buddies and it felt like I was on a Six Flags ride that I couldn't get off of soon enough. At one point, maybe after his 9th or 10th text message, it occurred to me that I should probably buckle up. But I didn't.
Once I survived and was able to get off of the roller coaster ride, I had a quick and simple process of getting through security and to my gate for my flight to Rome. I took off and landed in less than an hour, had a nice lunch at the Fiumicino airport and was onto my next flight to Barcelona in no time. As I sat and waited for my flight to depart from the gate, I began to doze off as I always seem to do during this time of the flight. However, within a few moments I was brought back to reality by the short, brown-haired flight attendant giving safety instructions a few rows in front of me. As she demonstrated what to do in the event that cabin pressure suddenly dropped, I realized that I have never actually listened to what these flight attendants are saying. I thought to myself. 'Would you even know what to do if that happened, or if we had an emergency ocean-landing, or even worse, a crash?" My answer was no.
A few days into my trip I was walking through the city with two of my friends from my program whom I stayed with in Barcelona, as well as our close friend who is studying there. In many European countries I have noticed that there are red, sometimes yellow, and green lights for walking across a sidewalk. One of my friends and I were walking behind the other two having a conversation about who knows what, and the other two were preparing to cross a busy street. Following my friend's lead, I was about a step into the road when I realized there was a car coming and I quickly pulled my friends back to our side of the road. I thought to myself, 'Why the heck didn't you look both ways?' I had no answer for myself other than, 'I just assumed Sam did.’
I had a few similar experiences throughout the rest of my time in Barcelona, but these three seemed to stick out the most. Apart from each other they just seemed like moments of naivety; however, once they gathered in my mind I began to examine these moments as one-in-the-same. Now that I have provided you with the context, I now invite you to follow my thought process on this series of events...
Are we as human beings born as natural 'trusters?' Those who instinctively want to rely on others and feel that others are just as instinctively honest and trustworthy? Or is it that we have an ignorance inside of us that we simply cannot shake? One that creates a sense of egotism that allows us to believe we're invincible to the ills and dangers of the world? I like to think the prior is true; however, in this day and age it has become increasingly difficult to believe that the people around us are trustworthy, making it impossible to rely on others for our own well-being.
So that leaves us with the latter hypothesis - ignorance. There is an unfortunate group of people out there that walk through the world feeling as though they are untouchable. This can be good or this can be bad. In most cases it is quite problematic. When a person believes they are better than most they ignore the most crucial components in life, such as listening to life-or-death safety instructions or looking both ways when crossing the street.
But what about the rest of us? It can't be true that everyone thinks so highly of themselves all of the time. My answer is this: those of us who neither distrust others, nor possess the arrogance of so many others are simply comfortable. We have grown accustom to the rights and wrongs of the world and have learned to go along with them. But more importantly, we've learned when these rights and wrongs can very slightly be dismissed. If you've traveled via taxi enough times in your life then you probably know that they are actually quite experienced drivers and that buckling up doesn't feel so crucial, and that's OK. If you've flown on a plane enough times you may feel as though you don't need to listen to Mrs. Flight Attendant recite her script yet another time, and that's OK. And if you've known certain people for long enough then you know it's safe to cross the street with them without tilting your head three times from left to right, and that's OK. It's all about comfort. For some people that may mean buckling up in a taxi and listening to the flight attendant every time she goes over the safety procedures. For others it may mean they don't even notice how fast a taxi driver is going.
One thing I've learned to do more of since starting my abroad experience is to ask myself if I'm comfortable. And I don't mean the type of comfortable you feel when you're wearing your favorite sweatshirt or surrounded by people you know, but the kind of comfortable you start to feel over time. Being comfortable can be an incredible feeling - comfortable at work, comfortable with your friends, comfortable with your image - but after enough time comfort can cause you to get stuck. Stuck in a routine, one than can cloud your view on what you're doing or looking at.
I think that what I'm getting at is that it can be quite enjoyable to feel comfortable and to feel at ease about just about every aspect in life; however, being too comfortable can prevent us from thinking about things when we should be. You should never be too comfortable in life. Always challenge yourself and take a few steps outside of your comfort zone. Always say yes to trying new things. Always step back and ask yourself, 'Am I comfortable?'
It's crazy to think that three inconspicuous occurrences during my travels in Barcelona could lead to such an elaborate thought process on what those things might mean. However, it's allowed me reply "no" to that very important question. And that makes me very happy.