Embracing Discomfort
Olivia Patel
Hannah Potts
No one likes being uncomfortable.
It’s in the definition: The word itself is associated with terms like “unease” and “awkwardness.” However, there is nothing more important in the world than experiencing discomfort. It is the discomfort in life that helps us sort out what we like and dislike, and discover things about ourselves we would otherwise ignore.
One of the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever experienced was going to Shanghai, China when I was 8 years old to visit my dad at his new job. The discomfort I felt was off the charts; I was a child in a (scary) foreign country visiting a family member who had been temporarily displaced in my life. While this was one of the first times I truly felt uncomfortable, it was also one of the first times I felt alive.
I experienced new things, saw places that startled me and most importantly, found my curiosity.
The food, people and culture were all shocking to me. I had never before seen a way of life so different from mine in every way – and I loved it.
I used public restrooms that were hole-in-the-ground disgusting and felt watched at every moment by the hundreds of thousands of cameras placed on every city block and in every park. I tried an array of street food including fried frog, duck eggs and honeycomb on a stick and experienced both the bustling city of Shanghai and the quiet, more rural outskirts of the city.
It was this trip that started my passion for undergoing new things. Since then, I have moved away from home for college, independently studied abroad, visited more than 19 countries and found my calling as a journalist.
All thanks to that little pesky feeling of being uncomfortable.
