Who would have thought a hoodie could challenge you, but that’s exactly what happened. You may not have thought of it this way in the moment, but when you’re young not knowing much, or “being stupid” is an advantage. Any job you get is a new job. Since your parents have probably selected everything from your dentist to your grocery store your whole life, it is stressful when you move and have to do it yourself. If you change jobs a year from now, you probably haven’t even got half-way settled at the first place before you’re starting all over again.
That was me. From 19 to 25, I must have changed jobs an average of once a year. From 26-45, it had gone to once every four years, and now I probably average 10 or more years with the same clients. After moving every three years or so for the first half of adulthood, I’ve now lived in Santa Monica for almost 30 years.
Here’s what happens as you get older – you know stuff. From how to write a budget justification to booking a flight to where to buy glasses that will accept your insurance. It’s comfortable to know stuff. You don’t have to worry about getting lost, running out of money or saying the wrong thing in a meeting. Because I never had lived anywhere longer than 4 years, once I had been in Santa Monica for a while, it dawned on me how much easier life is if you are not constantly new to the neighborhood. Whether it is a root canal or a notarized document, you’ve already figured out where to get it done.
So … here I am in Barcelona airport, waiting for my luggage and a young person in front of me is wearing a hoodie with this saying:
Your Fear of Looking Stupid is Holding You Back
I think about that because I was worried for the last couple of weeks about coming to Spain. Most Americans will tell you my Spanish is good because it is good compared to the zero Spanish that they know. I have a Ph.D. and two masters degrees. My Spanish was learned from hanging out with friends, getting lectured by my grandmother and living in Chile seven years ago. I don’t take the metro in Santa Monica because I have a car and the last time I was on a train was a year ago in London where they speak English. The time before that was probably a dozen years ago, across Canada.
I am a prime candidate for the “gringo tax”.
That’s when you pay four times as much for something you can do in English, like take a taxi from the airport instead of a train.
Which is why I’m writing this on a train from Passeig de Gracia to the Barcelona airport. In fact, I ended up at the metro station for 20 minutes trying to figure out how to buy a ticket and no, despite what you read on the Internet, the machine did not have an option for English and I ended up buying three tickets because I do not know Catalan AT ALL and did not understand the message. In the end, I asked a nice woman how to use the ticket. I was trying to feed it in the machine, like you do in London, but in Barcelona you tap your ticket on the tap sign.
Then, I found the train that supposedly went to the airport but I THINK there was an announcement in the station about technical difficulties and it was not going all the way to the airport. Whatever that announcement was, I finally got on the train and the last station was definitely not the airport. I asked someone again and some nice people who worked for the train line said that it doesn’t go to the airport and I needed to either take the metro or the bus.
So … on to the metro, which finally got me to the airport.
At the airport, I got a cappuccino, checked out where I need to meet my granddaughter tomorrow and asked at tourist info how to get back to my hotel. This was my first (and last) conversation in English. She told me there was a bus that, the last stop, was near my hotel.
In one day, I have been on the metro, a train and a bus. It occurred to me that when I was in graduate school, I worked with people who were developmentally disabled and one of my tasks was to teach them how to use public transportation. Now, that has taken up my whole day teaching it to myself.
I’ve seen far too many people who never leave their bubble because they are afraid of looking stupid. At breakfast, the waitress asked “Inglés o español?” and I said, “Trato español” which was probably not the best way to answer, but I managed to order breakfast.
My second metro riding effort took me one minute instead of 20 and my trip to the airport tomorrow will probably take 30 minutes instead of two hours. Today, I found my way to the airport and back and to a cafe where I am now finishing this post, eating lunch and drinking a glass of wine, which I also managed to order in Spanish.
Was it an uncomfortable day? Yes, especially when I found myself wandering around lost 3 miles from the airport. Did I ask myself what the hell I am doing instead of just paying for a taxi? Also, yes.
Why do it then? Because, I have found, that being able to function in uncomfortable situations gets easier with practice, like most things, and, often, the best experiences are outside of your comfort zone.
Check out my day job – if you want to make game to teach almost anything to anybody, we can make it for you.
What? You’re a developer and want to make games yourself? We have a free demo of our low-code 7 Gen Blocks you can pick up here.
