Lens Shifting & Comparative Thinking: In the Moment

The Cougs Abroad Blog Squad asks me to consider a nuance of life in my country that is distinctly different for me than home. While I am in Scotland I often compare my experiences to those at my university in the US, and one of the notable differences here is Scottish students’ ability to live in the moment, as it were, through an easygoing attitude and the surreal lack of interest in constantly texting or using mobile phones. I am as guilty of this as anyone at university at home. In between classes, when walking with other friends, at lunch, or even in class, there is a compulsive drive to check who has texted (and for those with internet, the almost reflexive action to flip through the latest posts on the news feed). I never realized how truly routine this phone-checking was until I arrived at my university here and found myself the sole individual texting rapidly between classes.

This is just one of many examples of the “in the moment” attitude I am witnessing all around me. Every time I return from class, I spot multiple families taking walks around the campus loch, pushing strollers or holding their children’s hands. In town, older couples take slow walks past storefronts. Everywhere in Stirling and other parts of the country are dedicated dog-walkers, simply out for a stroll with their pets without iPods or a phone pressed to their ears. This is not to suggest that these things do not happen in my part of the US, nor am I writing this in any sort of irritation of personal mp3 players and phones. I am still guilty of being the one to rush between activities at school, and after every class I seem to be checking my phone. I can count on only one hand the times I have taken a walk for the sake of taking a walk, and I become easily irritated with slow moving queues, delays in receiving something in the post, or other “inconveniences” different from the hurried pace of life in the US.

There is a strong emphasis on the value of patience here that I hope I can absorb the longer I stay. Before I arrived I had read that in general the folk of Scotland are praised for being understanding, laid-back and friendly, rumors I can definitely confirm from my encounters. Of course it is ridiculous to apply personality traits to an entire nation, but I find that if anything people here are consistently patient, a virtue I lack, especially when standing in line for an hour to sign up for something I felt could have been carried out more efficiently another way. But that is just the point – in order to live in the moment, I have to take everything as it comes, and I certainly hope that during the rest of my time here I will learn to be more restful and relaxed.