By  Clara Bonfanti 

I love traveling. It’s an amazing way to discover new landscapes, new cultures new people, new kind of food… I’ve visited a few countries all over the world, like Mexico, Japan, and South Africa. It allowed me to think differently and to learn a lot of things about other cultures. It’s a good way to learn more about yourself as well. When I am all by myself or just with a friend on the other end of the world, I forget all the daily hassle and my worries. I just live for the moment. I know I am not staying here indefinitely, so I try to enjoy every minute and to optimize my time to make this few days as complete and enriching as possible. But as soon as I come back home, I feel like all the benefits of these days abroad have vanished. My usual life takes over everything. And I suddenly forget to enjoy every minute of this life, I just think about the future or even the past. The present seems less important. It is as if I always tried to escape the reality. Whereas the future is actually based on this moment. So it should be as important as everything else.

I realized that I always want change and I don’t feel comfortable when my life becomes too monotonous. Everything suddenly becomes boring. That’s actually one of the reasons I went to London this year, I wanted to live new things and enjoy every minute of the present moment, exactly like when I’m on holidays. Living in a foreign country, even just for a few months, is actually the best thing to do this. Because – even if I am clearly not on holidays – it’s a great opportunity to break my usual habits. I live and discover new things almost every day. It’s a very enriching experience. It’s sometimes stressful, exhausting or even scary, but it’s always interesting and worth being lived. It often forces me to get out of my comfort zone, which is the best way to improve myself.

I arrived in London one month ago, and I lived more things in this short lapse of time than I did during the last few months. It feels so good to finally enjoy every minute of my life. I know (or at least I think) that I am not staying in this city forever, so I really try to force me to do new things every day. I am lucky to have friends living in London and to have met great people at SCA who are always ready to try new things. It makes everything easier.

Enjoying the moment is something very important to do. Even if we have expectations for the future, we should not neglect the present. Not appreciating enough the moment doesn’t mean I am not happy with my life, I see this more as a waste because it would actually help me to be happier with what I have instead of always wanting more and having too high expectations. That’s why this is one of my resolutions: from now on I will always appreciate each day, even if nothing important happens because every little thing counts.