Harlaxton Day 20: Class and Free Time

I awoke this morning with one thing on my mind: the final exam tomorrow. But I’m sure you all would not want to hear about a day spent learning in class and studying content, because I know I wouldn’t. So I’ll summarize what actually happened today, but I’ll then reminisce on the trip as a whole.

I’ll cut to the chase. The morning was spent in class reviewing poetry content and learning about T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” and Philip Larkin’s poems. Class ended, and I spent most of the remainder of the day studying for our final exam tomorrow. I took a few breaks for absolutely necessary items, such as eating, going to the gym, and walking around the manor to enjoy its aesthetic features. I eventually gave in to sleep at quite a late hour, as I was preoccupied by spending some quality time [reviewing poetry content] with my dude, Jackson Chumbler.

Well that’s the extent of what I was assigned to write, so with that, here’s a monologue that you didn’t know you needed until you read half of this random blog post.

Let me just say that these past three weeks in England have been legendary, not in the sense that I achieved all I sought for, but in the sense that this trip has emphasized the importance and beauty of spontaneity. In setting up a trip, many tend to emphasize the destinations that are well known, for those seem to be the things that people desire to see. But is that really what travelling is? On multiple occasions over the last few weeks, visiting destinations that society has deemed ‘famous’ has been drastically outweighed by the spontaneous wanderings-about which have led a few of my acquaintances and I to realize fresh perspectives and feelings of immersion. It’s almost as if most people trade the very causes that make us unique—experiential diversity—for status-quo episodes that only monotonize who we are as humans. Anyone can see the London Bridge, but how many people are willing to leisurely stroll through the residential zones of London and just take in the city for what it is? Famous travelers, from Anthony Bourdain to Ibn Battuta, are not known for simply showing off that they have visited places, but they are known for sharing the rich perspectives they gained during their journeys across the world. Everyone’s experience in any given location is different, and I have realized that that’s the beauty of travel. I can easily photo-shop myself into a cliché picture of a famous landmark, but it is impossible for me to photo-shop myself into someone else’s experience.

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”  -Ibn Battuta

 

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