My time in Rwanda is coming to an end. I have tried to capture the essence of my experiences through this blog, but have only been able to provide snapshots of life in Africa. I have therefore been searching over the last few days for a dominant theme that can unite these fragmented threads of experiences into whole cloth.
I think I have found one: the dual nature of routines. This might seem like a strange theme, so let me provide some context.
Context:
When I first arrived in Nyagatare, everything was new and strange. I had no daily rituals, and had to fumble my way through the first few days. Those days were exciting - I felt alive, constantly evaluating changes in my environment and making decisions. After about 3 days, I had found my bearings and constructed a routine. The next few days, devoid of any day trips outside Nyagatare, were ordinary. In fact, it seems like vast stretches of time were just a meaningless blur; my daily rituals had usurped the richness of the experience. This realization prompted me to reflect on the role of routine.
On Routine:
The human mind has a certain predilection for patterns. We construct routines and follow them because it reduces the uncertainty in our lives and makes it easier to predict the future. Routines are necessary and healthy. In fact, good habits are the foundation for future success. Olympic athletes follow the same series of gruelling exercises day after day to train their bodies. The smartest people I know follow study at the same time, for the same amount of time, every day to train their minds. I know that the habits (or routines) I inculcate today will literally determine the quality of my future.
And yet, I remain deeply ambivalent about routines. It is frighteningly easy to lose one's identity in the daily hum drum of life. Routines are built on a series of assumptions about the world - these assumptions may have been accurate at a certain point in time, but most of them have not been fully examined. In some cases, the routine may be so deeply ingrained into one's life that the original assumptions that created the routine are forgotten. This is why so many people "find" themselves when travelling. In the process of creating a new routine, they reexamine the fundamental assumptions about the world that they haven't examined for a long period of time.
My worst fear is waking up 20 years from now, following the exact same rituals, without making any conscious decisions. Living life by default, rather than by design. Allowing my routine to be my identity. Socrates once said that an unexamined life is not worth living. Routines are dangerous because they make it so easy to stop questioning one's fundamental assumptions about the world, and by extension, to stop living a conscious life.
Now I see the common thread that weaves through all my blog posts. They were experiences that were outside the routine and caused a shift in perspective. If there is one thing I have come to understand because of Rwanda, these shifts in perspective are what make life worth living.
For the next two weeks, we will be travelling to Kampala, Nairobi, Arusha and the Serengeti, Dar-Es-Salaam, and finally Zanzibar. I will update when I can!
I think I have found one: the dual nature of routines. This might seem like a strange theme, so let me provide some context.
Context:
When I first arrived in Nyagatare, everything was new and strange. I had no daily rituals, and had to fumble my way through the first few days. Those days were exciting - I felt alive, constantly evaluating changes in my environment and making decisions. After about 3 days, I had found my bearings and constructed a routine. The next few days, devoid of any day trips outside Nyagatare, were ordinary. In fact, it seems like vast stretches of time were just a meaningless blur; my daily rituals had usurped the richness of the experience. This realization prompted me to reflect on the role of routine.
On Routine:
The human mind has a certain predilection for patterns. We construct routines and follow them because it reduces the uncertainty in our lives and makes it easier to predict the future. Routines are necessary and healthy. In fact, good habits are the foundation for future success. Olympic athletes follow the same series of gruelling exercises day after day to train their bodies. The smartest people I know follow study at the same time, for the same amount of time, every day to train their minds. I know that the habits (or routines) I inculcate today will literally determine the quality of my future.
And yet, I remain deeply ambivalent about routines. It is frighteningly easy to lose one's identity in the daily hum drum of life. Routines are built on a series of assumptions about the world - these assumptions may have been accurate at a certain point in time, but most of them have not been fully examined. In some cases, the routine may be so deeply ingrained into one's life that the original assumptions that created the routine are forgotten. This is why so many people "find" themselves when travelling. In the process of creating a new routine, they reexamine the fundamental assumptions about the world that they haven't examined for a long period of time.
My worst fear is waking up 20 years from now, following the exact same rituals, without making any conscious decisions. Living life by default, rather than by design. Allowing my routine to be my identity. Socrates once said that an unexamined life is not worth living. Routines are dangerous because they make it so easy to stop questioning one's fundamental assumptions about the world, and by extension, to stop living a conscious life.
Now I see the common thread that weaves through all my blog posts. They were experiences that were outside the routine and caused a shift in perspective. If there is one thing I have come to understand because of Rwanda, these shifts in perspective are what make life worth living.
For the next two weeks, we will be travelling to Kampala, Nairobi, Arusha and the Serengeti, Dar-Es-Salaam, and finally Zanzibar. I will update when I can!
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