There’s no substitute for the experience

An old retired friend was fondly regaling a recent trip to Mexico City. He was very impressed with many elements of his visit including the amazing cleanliness of the city, the lack of vagrants, and the overall magnitude of the city (27 million people).

As he tried to describe the overall experience, he eventually landed on

“it’s different… you really have to see it”.

This statement reminded me of everytime I try to explain the nuance of teaching a ‘bad’ class at school. It’s never just one thing, but rather a collage of the billion elements, inputs, actions, sounds, sights, and smells combined with our own biological and neurological reactions that create the ‘story’.

Words will never convey the experience, you need to live it, to understand it.

This is the magic of travelling to new locations,

taking new routes,

and eating new dishes.

It takes putting on someone else's ‘shoes’, before you truly ‘know’.

• Now that’s a peak ethos.