Shift in the perspective

Over my life in Denmark, I’ve changed quite a few places of study, and not long ago I caught myself with a thought I wanted to pour out somewhere, the logical place being my website. A small shift in the perspective of the city you live in can reveal a huge shift in your life. What I mean is, we tend to take it for granted when we move from our home (point A) to point B (which could be our place of study or work), and we barely notice which streets we’re walking down, since we’ve done it so many times that every step has become automatic. But what happens when we swap point B for a new place, let’s call it point C (say, we change schools or jobs), and point C happens to be close to the old point B? What do we see? The same streets, sure, but our route to them has changed, because now we’re heading somewhere else. What’s interesting is that we notice the same places, even the same old route we used to take to point B, but now it feels different. That old road we walked every day is so close to us, yet at the same time it feels like a different dimension, a dimension where you no longer exist. When, on your way to point C, you occasionally spot bits of your old route to point B, there’s this wave of nostalgia, like the road is right there next to you, the same street, the same place, but the destination is different now, and it’s like it’s showing you how much your life has changed.

But what if the period of walking to point C ends too, and you start walking to point D, which is also nearby? Say it’s not the same street anymore, but still the same neighborhood. The perspective shifts again, almost imperceptibly, within the bounds of that neighborhood, but it’s exactly within those bounds that a person lives through different chapters of their life.

This thought really sparks my imagination, because with just a small shift in perspective, the little streets of a city can remind you of so much during an ordinary walk. This is the road I used to take the bus on when I was just starting to learn Danish and had just arrived in Denmark. This is the path I started walking when I signed up for some course, and in the neighborhood next door, I switched schools and met the first genuinely interesting person I still keep in touch with to this day.

It’s interesting, though I’m not entirely sure I managed to fully capture what I meant. Still, I’m glad I have a place where I can document this, after all, we’re living through an information boom, and I’d rather hold onto my own thoughts than drown in everyone else’s.