Three things I learned in Europe…
1. I learned that we should “work to live” instead of “live to work.” This is something that the Europeans understood well. Instead of centering this lives on work, they focused on completing the day’s tasks and spending time on other activities such as raising their kids, catching up with friends, going to see a musical, going to a museum, park, or other public area. The people in Europe have a healthy way of viewing their work – not as something that binds them, not as something that is “their entire life,” but as something productive, something that will enable one to achieve the money and skills needed for other ventures. This attitude is perhaps fostered by their economic atmosphere, specifically that the socialist governments. However, despite where this attitude toward work and life comes from, it is a healthy one compared to the lifestyle of being consumed by work and stress in America.
2. I learned to live in the moment, not in the future. This is something relevant to the point above, but nevertheless this point that merits a stand-alone paragraph. I am completely guilty of planning my life almost everyday, and often, I think about what I need to do the next day, month, or year. In Europe, not only did I catch myself planning my time away, but I also caught myself worrying about the next step in life. I sat on the bus, going to somewhere new and exciting, and wondered about my return to the States. This is something that impeded my ability to enjoy myself in the moment. Thus, I learned to frequently calm myself by taking a deep breath and just sitting in silence to enjoy the ambience and to nip the runaway thoughts in the bud.
3. Be killing procrastination, or it will be killing you. At LSE, I faced a giant load of reading with an essay and exam almost every week (in my three-week course). I would often say to myself: “I’ll see London in the couple of days after the course is done.” Then, I would catch myself wasting my time with iTunes or Facebook while trying to write my essays or study for the exam. After the first essay, I realized my tendency to procrastinate and made it a point to go sightseeing every other day. This way, I tightened my schedule and diminished my tendency to waste time on the computer. No matter where we are, we should stop putting life on hold. If we want to do something, then we should plan to do it as soon as we can. For example, I have been telling myself to pick up Chinese in the last three years. However, until I studied at LSE and realized that procrastination was killing my dream to learn Chinese, I didn’t take action. Now I am taking Chinese 201 next semester because of this valuable lesson.