Hesitant Curiosity

On: Travelling beyond your routine and things you should hold on to

Two years ago, in April, I wrote a Blogpost on perspectives and how to gain new ones.

As I explore the streets of San Francisco these days guided by my best friend, we swap our roles. 

He shows me his San Francisco as I showed him my Paris.

He's basically shouting: "Look at this mural!" (In fact he is not - This is staged as fuck)

I see a new city, The City, how they call it here and I'm stunned. By the beauty of things that are just daily life to others, by the unexpected and the „other“ they don't see anymore. Palm trees and steep streets, the fog rolling in from the ocean. The endless geometric field of blocks - with their flaws and impossibilities. 

I mean you couldn't  get used to palm trees in front of your house, could you?

And because I stay here three weeks, it begins to feel normal. Daily. Expected.

But still I am a stranger to this world and I love and hate it. I pretend to be a student of SF State, try to blend in into the mass of people in the street, on Campus. I pretend to belong here.

SF State Campus

But yet my curious eyes reveal me. 
My look that wanders relentlessly across facades and trees. 

You can notice that I still explore. I still see things that are new to me.

Why do we stop exploring at some point?
 
We like and hate habits. We don't have to be excited and nervous to ride the bus and maybe get off at a wrong station anymore. We're not afraid to lose ourselves in an urban jungle because we know the map. We walk the ways that we've already walked. We close our eyes to the unknown, the strange.

We call ourselves open-minded, but we're not.

We shouldn't. We should be what we call us. We should never stop exploring.

I saw a woman on Muni earlier. When Maxi and I talked, she listened to us, heard that we're German. Asked us about it. Talked to us. I want to be like her when I grow up. I want to be an attentive person, open to the world, to people that seem very different to me. Listen to them.

I don't mean that we should have to give up every routine we have. Routines are good. 
The safety of knowing there will be someone home when you return. The number you know by heart since forever to call your mom. That one friend you can always come to. The familiar way to your favourite café.

And new things aren't automatically good. Like bubble tea in 2009. Or these stupid hair bands that look like vintage telephone cables (Unpopular opinion: I hate them).

And things that are old aren't automatically bad. (Some are, though, like not accepting gay marriage or women's rights) 
Family is the oldest thing ever but still something really important and meaningful in most people's lives. Drawing is old. Writing. But still we do it. Maybe the forms change. The mode changes, trends appear, values and ways people think change. But we still feel the urge to express ourselves, to create, to communicate, to show who we are and what we believe.

"Open up your eyes and see like me! Open up your plans and - damn, you're free!" - Jason Mraz (preferably played with an ukulele)

Change can be good. But remember there's always something you already have when you arrive in a new place. (Nerd Alert: In constructivist political theory this is called your "cognitive prior")

Make sure these things are good. And make sure to be curious. 
Open up for new experiences. Some of them might be stunning, others disgusting, shocking, breath-taking. Some might turn out more normal to you than you'd have expected.

Don't close your eyes to new experiences! (Don't be like me)