#89> Discomfort

Thursday, October 13, 2016

 

I stayed in Amsterdam last Friday to look around the city. Friday night fever was amazing in Amsterdam and all city seems super busy. That was my impromptu journey in Amsterdam so I couldn’t find any rooms to sleep at night. All hotel rooms were fully booked and it looked like I had to go back to Wageningen at late night. I lastly stopped by a small hotel to ask whether there is an available room or not. Fortunately, one room was available and I decided to stay at the room. However, when I went to the room, I was so disappointed with the room condition. It was so small and there was even no bathroom inside the room. Maybe this hotel was likely to be a backpacker motel for young travels. I couldn’t sleep well and I thought if I had gone back to my place, it would have been much better.

 

All of sudden, some memories popped up in my head. When I was a college student, I had a chance to travel to Australia. Then, I took a train to go to Perth from Melbourne. Actually it took 3 days and I slept for 3 days in the train. I was wondering how my feeling was at that time inside the train and surprisingly, it was “cool.” I was so happy during my journey because I felt I’m a cool person who can take this discomfort and enjoy the journey. In 2005, the discomfort came to me as a stylish life and 10 years later it comes to me as nasty experience.

 

In the poem, Youth, Samuel Ullman says

 

Youth is not a time of life — it is a state of mind, it is a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over love of ease. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old only by deserting their ideals.

 

Maybe, now I’m getting old because it seems hard for me to take the discomforts. I think now it’s the time to recover the imagination, emotions and courage. Therefore, I’d like to be a youth again.

 

Thursday, October 13, 2016 @ Amsterdam, Netherlands