Sitting in the front of a double decker is like watching a canvas. Seeing the golden light shining on the treetops, the sky shifting colors when the sun is on its way down, and signs counting down to my destination.
I have always envied people watching series, reading books, or studying on transportations. It has seemed like traveling is the perfect time to make up for lost time or keep yourself entertained. But how about us who get motion sick like a kid while being young adults? First of all I can’t make up for lost time or entertain myself, because if I try my head would start spinning even faster. Most of the time it’s too risky just to try leaving the sight from the window to look at a text, scroll through social media or even look at the person next to me. So, what’s left for me to do, sleep? Once I fall asleep everything will be okay. Trust me when I say it’s almost like magic when I actually do. But most of the time closing my eyes is a great start, and while I’m closing my eyes a podcast can entertain me. It can, but it’s not a must. Otherwise I try to just breathe.
Traveling forces me to do absolutely nothing. Except for breathing. How often do we really stop for a moment and take our time to be present? Just listening to conversations around us and realizing this world contains more than just us. But also presence in ourselves, by listening to what we are feeling in the moment.
Some people keep taking the stairs to get that daily exercise, but if I get to choose, I don’t. I rather take the escalator, because then I get a few seconds of absolutely nothing. It’s not a question about being lazy or not, it’s about investing in those small moments of breath to a healthy lifestyle. Life is hectic. Being a human in 2021, student or not, keeps us following the rhythm of expectations. So why not take those small moments in the escalator while you get carried to the next pit stop of your traveling. It’s maybe not time saving in the exact moment, but maybe lifesaving in the long term.
I still envy people on the train because then I can’t sit in the front and watch the Swedish nature reaching on both sides of the road. But on the double decker I’m on the front row of the most amazing view you can have while traveling. Yes, there are cars, and trees and all the normal stuff, but in those moments of presence I’ll see the details. I’ll keep searching for the changes in the sky, the shifting leaves, and any hints of my destination in this panorama view. It’s a fact that life throws us around, and most of the time we want everything, but sometimes all we really need is those small moments of nothing.
