Art of Travel: Receptivity

After reading the de Botton chapter, “On Habitat,” I was rather struck by several things. First the quote that he implements at the very beginning, “the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room,” really resonates with me at the moment. As I have previously mentioned in my blogs, I am currently living alone but to be honest, not really enjoying it. I love the city and all the great things that Paris has to offer, but at the end of the day I am always sad to leave my friends to go home to an empty apartment. And on days when I don’t have plans after class and I just come straight home it is even more annoying. Also because school here is so much less demanding than it is back in New York, I never really even have much homework to keep me occupied. I have come to think that my overall experience here in Paris might have been somewhat different if I had had a roommate with whom I could have taken in the trials and tribulations of daily life living abroad.

I always thought that I would like living alone, but I think that while abroad was probably not the right time to explore this theory. I think that this is partly because I came into the semester knowing very few people on the program and with none of my friends, whereas if I was living alone in New York I would have a much more established network of people as well as my rather hectic life to keep me busy.

De Botton also speaks of receptivity in this chapter, which also applies to my situation. When I first found out that I was going to be living alone, I decided the best way to approach the situation was with “receptivity.” I thought that maybe if I kept this open mind frame that maybe the situation would end up working out for the best and I would end up being happy that I opted to keep my studio. What I have really come to discover is that receptivity is very important when encountering a new place but perhaps not so important when it concerns you fixed habitat because this may ultimately dictate how you experience the rest of your surroundings.

Along with my personal and immediate habitat, I also think about the city itself, as it is my habitat. It has made me do a lot of comparison between how I experience my home city, Atlanta, as well as New York. I was struck by what de Botton says about home and “being more settled in our expectations, feeling assured that we have discovered everything interesting about our neighborhood,” but I would say that if anything, traveling has made appreciate home even more and think about the things that I have never gotten the chance to do or experience at home. It makes me want to make more of an effort when I return to try to experience all of the little things, like I do here in Paris.