Jumping deep

A few years ago during my studies I encountered the concept of the zone of proximal development, this was firstly introduced by the psychologist Lev Vygotski in the early 1930s, and it represents the distance between what a learning is able to do unsupported and what they can only do supported.

I believe this concept applies to to mostly everything around us, for example in music we don’t enjoy a piece that is repetitive but we don’t enjoy when it is just random notes that are chaotic, the zone where music becomes enjoyable is when you are able to follow to some extent whilst still not know what comes next.

This applies in sports as well, the constant research for our performance limits, pushes us to reach a point in which we are not completely in control of everything, hoping that we will learn and improve This concept in my opinion is what best describes travel and culture and what the true raw experience should look like, this is the reason why everytime I travel I try to find a way to experience the culture I am in and embrace it fully, and therefore this is what I have been doing this past week in Barcelona. The best way to combine my passion for culture diversity and personal growth is to push myself into uncomfortable positions while traveling. This usually implies little to no preplanning before a trip and practicing new activities wherever I go, such as bull running in Pamplona or freediving in Greece.

One activity that I wanted to try was bunjee jumping, It always fascinated me because falling is one of the innate fears of humans and I admired the mental strength it requires to let yourself not be stopped by your fears, but instead consciously deciding the path you want to take. Therefore when it was confirmed that I would be coming here I decided to go bungee jumping in the nearest place to Barcelona, it is an activity that I have been wanting to try for a few years but never got the chance to do.

Lately, I was starting to feel uncomfortable about doing it, therefore to not be controlled by fear I had to do it. When I was standing ready to jump, staring down, 85 m from the ground, I was a little uncomfortable, with my subconscious increasing my awareness of the dangerous position I was in, making me a little hesitant to jump. Even so, I counted 3 seconds and just consciously decided to let go of what was keeping from doing what I wanted and just jump. The experience was fantastic, because as with other adrenaline based activities, it allows to just be present, with no background thoughts or feelings, and only feel the moment you are living. This is what I appreciate the most about it, because this moment is all that truly matters and the only thing we have, and all of us get caught up on our activities, worries, thoughts and overall lives that often we don't remember to enjoy the now.

I tried to this activity with other people coming from other universities to Barcelona, but opposed to what I was expecting no one seems interested. Contrarily, when I asked my friends to go skydiving in Italy, which is actually more extreme, many of them agreed. This made me reflect on how different cultures approach opportunities and look at risk takers in their societal structure and how it could be reflected on the overall system.

The controlled part of this week experience has been connecting with people from very different cultures and explore the city with them, allowing us to bond over the smooth Gaudi shapes around the city.

It has been fascinating to see how we are all attracted towards different aspects of the same item, as well as discuss with them on a broad range of subjects.

This has allowed me to better understand how even a small geographical/cultural shift can cause a very big difference in the way we live life.