I still remember the thrill of taking the Eurostar on a Saturday afternoon to make an impromptu visit to one of my best friends living in Lille, France. I stayed less than twenty-four hours, but it was worth it. London is like that. On top of the million and one activities it offers you, the British capital also promises convenient connections to the rest of the old continent. Before you know it, you find yourself walking across the ‘Karlův most’ (Charles Bridge) in Prague or enjoying a traditional flamenco show in Seville.
With so many adventures in London and across Europe lined up over the coming months, it is easy to let excitement distract you from your schoolwork. Pulling an all-nighter to hand in your assignment before flying off to Venice may seem a justifiable compromise, just as contributing to your group project with a video-call whilst climbing up tour Eiffel appears to be an acceptable solution. However, the buzz you get from wanting to experience everything whilst studying in a foreign country, can easily overpower your ability to absorb it all. You become so fixated with planning your next trip that you forget to enjoy what is in front of you: the present moment. As you run from Faraday House to the airport and back in time for your Monday morning class, you lose invaluable insights gained by staying fully present in the here and the now.
Unfortunately, the increasingly frantic and busy world we live in may exacerbate this distraction. If you play by its rules, you soon end up getting stressed and missing out on the things that are important to you. And your GPA suffers too. But even if you choose not to give in and opt for watching a movie on Netflix instead of travelling around the United Kingdom, procrastination lures beneath the surface. You risk overlooking key learning opportunities that result from putting yourself outside your comfort zone. And to the question, “What did you do when you studied abroad?” you can only list all of the TV series you watched.
The good news is that with a few simple steps, you can train your mind to remain in the present moment and to enjoy every minute of your stay in Europe. As Marcel Proust reminds us, “the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking out new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
***
Greta Rossi, Youth Coach at Syracuse University London, will lead a series of Master Classes for Honors students during the spring term. The first master class will explore the topics of distraction and procrastination as barriers to academic excellence and experiential learning, and will suggest practical tools to cultivate awareness and presence. But if you have realised that distraction and/or procrastination might be hindering your academic success and might be preventing you from enjoying your time in London, Greta is available for one-on-one coaching on Thursdays. For more information about one-on-one coaching support and to sign-up for a meeting, please see Greta in the Program Office in SR 105 or email her at grossi@syr.edu.
Photo credit: Nada Silman
I often feel that American undergraduates studying in London are too quick to rush off to the Continent for weekend trips. Paris or Barcelona or Amsterdam or Prague deserve more than a hasty, poorly researched, exhausting 36 hours. One good, but often neglected alternative, is to use the semester to explore Britain. Travel time to Brighton or Salisbury or Norwich or Manchester or York is manageable, the experience is not exhausting, and these cities have an enormous amount to show us.
You are absolutely right, Alan. As a student, I often “preferred” a weekend somewhere in the Old Continent to somewhere in Britain. “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence,” and I certainly felt the urge to see other places, because, well, Britain was not going anywhere and I was going to live there for a while. Unfortunately, what I did not realise is that I lacked the mindful awareness to fully explore and enjoy the here and the now. I was somehow always escaping the present moment. Thanks to your classes though, I explored and enjoyed London in a much deeper way that I would have been able to do by myself. And perhaps this is what all students need: a guide, someone who reminds them about what they already have on their own side of the fence and invites them to explore every inch of their garden. So thank you for being one of my guides here in Britain.