How To Escape The Ordinary Without Going Far

It’s time.

You feel you’ve reached the point, it feels right. You breathe in, breathe out, you laugh and you let go. You throw your sudden easiness around you like confetti, and you celebrate life for what it is…

How the hell did it get June? In three weeks from now I’ll be leaving Hamburg for good, I’ll move to a new city and explore new horizons I didn’t even know existed.

I see a cloudless sky, now. That hasn’t always been the case during the last weeks, as, naturally, many things had to be done at the same time. Events to be organised, conferences to be attended, exams to be passed, a thesis to be written, moving to be organized, student union to be supported – and then still having time for making music, exercising, friends… traveling?

Actually, a month ago I passed the first time since 8 months or so where I didn’t know when I’d board a plane the next time, after having been flying somewhere every 2-4 weeks – I know, such a first world problem, but when you have to let go of your biggest passion for a while, it is always a little agony…

Then being overwhelmed by all those little and big to do’s of everyday life that darken your sight like the recent storms all over Germany.

Well – if you can’t travel (which obviously was and is my problem), need a time out but don’t really have time to go anywhere particular, when, as you say in German, the ceiling falls onto your head or you’re simply curious… there’s always the possibility of just going out and exploring your home 🙂 It seems a litle silly cause yeah you know, it’s your home, you have all the time in the world, and yeah, maybe do this next week or so, and hm who knows it might rain later and well, actually bed and Netflix are great right now and oh damn, this presentation should get done but first just a quick call to your best friend, and actually it would suck to do things alone anyway.

Haha. No. Cause it takes nothing but you to go out and explore. Cause it takes nothing but you to make a decision. To maybe let a subtle wish come true. To make a little change for yourself.

You’ve got a free hour? Great, go for that café around the corner you’ve always wanted to try.
Maybe a free half day? Awesome, how about taking a walk or cycle through your neighborhood, taking it in consciously and stopping if something makes you curious, instead of flying by in highest rush hour like a ferrari on the autobahn. Have a look at that exhibition that always interested you when you saw that poster but forgot about it the second it was out of your sight.
Or you’ve even got a whole day? Then why not get out of town a little, maybe a forest, a lake, a hike, whatever comes to your mind. When was the last time you actually experienced pure quietness? When did you last see a sky not polluted by traffic and light?

I’m sure if you’d look at the map of your home and surroundings, there’ll be way more unknown places than those you actually know – as precisely as a plant always seeks its way through a dark labyrinth, only reaching for its light destination, passing everthing else without seeing any of it. Maybe it feels like that little drawing on the blank page or that sandcastle on the milelong beach, that seem to be insignificant but a safe place in the wide space of imagination where everything and nothing can be possible. But when you allow that everything and nothing to actually become something…

Simply walking cute streets right next to my apartment.

Going to new parts of town and getting a new perspective on it.

A nearby forest, chose to go there by just looking at the map and thought oh well, why not…

Spontaneously meeting up a group of great people in the citypark and enjoying the rare good weather, making music.

Cycling around the Alster for views that I haven’t been seeing in a while.

Being on the Alster, in the most central place of town and still being the person least surrounded by others.

Going on a little adventure hunt 55km out of Hamburg.

Open eyes and mind to observe known places in a new light.

Changing habits and getting a new feeling of known ways.

Yes, it is that easy 🙂 Go live your adventure!