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And now for today’s piece….
Hope you've all had a fantastic week. This week, I embarked on a quick trip to Italy to relax and enjoy the last bit of summer. It was a rushed travel experience as I had just finished a series of 12.5-hour night shifts, where I was getting only 2-4 hours of sleep per night.
After completing my last night shift on Monday morning at 9:30, I hurried home for a brief one-hour nap before heading to Gatwick Airport. Upon parking my car, I opened the boot and was surprised to find it empty with no suitcase in sight. I quickly checked the back seats in case I had left it there, but to my shock, it was missing as well. After a few minutes of confusion, I realized that I had indeed left my suitcase at home. I would be traveling to Italy for the week with only a few boxers, shorts and a vest – items I had wisely stashed in my backpack in case my suitcase went missing during transit. What was even more astonishing was that I had no memory of leaving my house and getting into the car, making it impossible to retrace my steps. This was incredibly startling, as I had never experienced anything like this before. Fortunately, I had my passport in my shoulder bag, so I anxiously hopped on the park and ride bus to the South terminal, trying to devise a plan without any belongings.
Fast forward six days, and I'm back in the UK, having enjoyed one of the best trips to Italy I've ever had. Setting humor aside, this forgetful experience taught me some key lessons:
Exercise extra caution after night shifts. I now fully believe in the study, which demonstrated that sleep deprivation has a more significant cognitive impact than alcohol intoxication. I will certainly think twice about booking another holiday after night shifts. I'm grateful that my lapse was merely forgetfulness, unlike more severe situations, such as the junior doctor who sadly caused an accident after a 12-hour shift. If you're someone who also works nights or long hours, let's ensure we get adequate rest before making significant decisions.
Happiness doesn't require much. This experience brought back memories of being stuck in Norway for the entire first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK, with nothing but a small backpack. Despite having few belongings, I was just as content as I would have been with a suitcase full of possessions. I may not have had the planned outfits, but I had the people I love around me, and that was more than sufficient.
(Almost) Every mistake is reversible. When I reached the terminal, I spent about half an hour and approximately £50 replacing all the essentials I needed for my trip. It was inconvenient but easily rectifiable, and now I have a few extra white and black tops for my next journey. Similarly, even when I make mistakes in my medical practice, most of them are benign and can be corrected with some effort.
You can either let something ruin your entire experience or choose to learn from it, move on, and enjoy your day. After allowing myself to sulk for a full 5 minutes, I made a firm mental note never to repeat this error and to take precautions in the future. I let go of my feelings of anger and upset, boarded my flight, and refrained from complaining about forgetting my things again. It's safe to say that I landed in Italy two hours later with a big smile on my face and a funny story to share with my family and friends.
Have a great week!
Kenji.
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👍🏾 Things I’ve enjoyed this week
Dave (Disney+ series) - honestly one of the best series I’ve watched this year. It’s got Lil Dicky in it and is a fictional story around his life. If you like him as a rapper, you’ll love this comedic series!
Snooze, acoustic version by SZA and Justin Bieber (song) - loved the original and love this acoustic version with JB.
Atlanta (Disney+ series) - binged this immediately after Dave. Haven’t reached the end, but it’s so good so far. It’s another series about a rapper trying to make it big.
A pair of handmade Italian loafers - picked up a pair of loafers from this small business in Italy. You can often find very high-quality handmade shoes/clothes from family-owned shops in Italy. If you’re ever there, I’d suggest investing in a good pair of shoes or even a suit. A bit more expensive, but I’ll probably wear them for the next 5-10 years!
Alpaka GO SLING NANO (sling bag) - my road-man Nike shoulder bag that I bought for a trip to Ibizia when I was 21 has finally reached the end of its life 😂 So I finally upgraded to a more stylish version.
How to Get Married by The School of Life (book) - Listened to this in about an hour whilst in Italy. Most of us will be in a relationship at some point and eventually get married, and this book takes us through why it’s part of our culture/society and how to make it last.
📚 Highlight of the week
We’re not meant to check our phone every five minutes. The constant mood swings of getting a “like” then an angry comment makes us into anxious creatures. We evolved for scarcity but live in abundance. There’s a constant struggle to say no when your genes always want to say yes. Yes to sugar. Yes to staying in this relationship. Yes to alcohol. Yes to drugs. Yes, yes, yes. Our bodies don’t know how to say no. When everyone is sick, we no longer consider it a disease.
Decide that each day you will make one small gesture that opens up a little time for you. Commit to making a cup of tea for yourself. Pick a movie and put it in your calendar as an official date with yourself. Take a walk without your phone. It can even be as simple as committing to one moment per day of looking in the mirror and saying as you would to a dear friend, in the wise words of Fred Rogers, “Remember, I like you just for being you.” Commit to one of these small gestures per day, and see where it leads you. We think you'll want to do more.
🏃The Hedonic Treadmill
My Uncle Alex, who is up in Heaven now, one of the things he found objectionable about human beings was that they so rarely noticed it when times were sweet. We could be drinking lemonade in the shade of an apple tree in the summertime, and Uncle Alex would interrupt the conversation to say, “If this isn’t nice, what is?” So I hope that you will do the same for the rest of your lives. When things are going sweetly and peacefully, please pause a moment, and then say out loud, “If this isn’t nice, what is?”.
Resurfaced to me by Readwise
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