I have seen so much during the eight months here. I have had some of my most beautiful life experiences here. Those have alternately sunk into the darkness. But let’s leave the more appealing and easy experiences for another time. After all, I want to focus on the main topic and that is our comfort zone. Already at home, I was ready to face all the challenges ahead of me. I wanted to verify that my long-term path of personal development bore fruit. How did it all turn out? And what were the biggest challenges I faced? Let’s start with the first challenge.
1) Escape One of the Most Beautiful Cities in the World to a Concrete Jungle
Prague is without a doubt one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Many people in the leaderboards rank it as the most beautiful! Strangely, a native is often unaware of this beauty and lives in his everyday stereotype. Whether we are good or bad, everything is only a state of mind we get used to after a while.
Taiwan is an exquisite island, but even such a delicate place has two major problems these days. The population density per square kilometer and air pollution. My university, and thus the place where I was to have spent the next eight months, was in the center of one of the largest cities in Taiwan. Taichung, the second most populated city on the island with a population of close to three million.
Though a fast developing city, with lots of modern buildings and luxury homes, this was not true of our school campus. That resembled the true Taiwan. Concrete jungle with single greenery hidden inside the campus. One restaurant next to the other. Streets lined with colorful banners, the scent of local food. Despite the daily rush of students no sidewalk division was there. The poverty could be felt from the immediate surroundings. For some of the dilapidated buildings, it was hard to believe people still lived there.
In sunny Taichung, where there is not a drop of rainfall for most of the year, seeing the blue sky would have been a miracle. It was covered with a gray layer of smog. All my efforts to get tanned thus failed. There was only the constant feeling of staying in a hot, humid steam.
2) The introvert in the World of Extroverts
How is staying in Taiwan compared to the plethora of extroverted countries? It’s not the USA or India, contrarily, introverts prevail here, right?! Yes, Taiwan is a nation of introverts. It can be seen in the whole culture on the island. Notwithstanding, one loner fleeing into the land of introverts does not mean that you will be surrounded by the same people only. Our environment creates a social bubble that can isolate us from the full picture.
It is no coincidence that extroverts are the dominant group going abroad. The feeling of being somewhere we haven’t been, in a new country surrounded by new people, culture, and customs. These are all stimuli that directly fulfill and charge the extroverts.
Unfortunately, what naturally charges someone can discharge someone else. As a blond guy with blue-green eyes, I was one of the superstars at the campus. With Taiwan’s trend valuing whiteness, this is no wonder. This was compounded by the fact that among the twenty thousand students you could count such people on one hand.
Nonetheless, one of the biggest challenges was staying in a dormitory, a tiny room measuring 6 x 3 meters. Inside were two bunk beds, a table under the window and two small cabinets. It was all connected by an alley, where the two inhabitants could barely avoid each other. A room where many by themselves would suffer from claustrophobia was shared between four men. Add to this a shared bathroom and washroom. It turns out that time alone is the most valuable thing that can happen to you during the day.
3) Mandarin, Is That the Language of the Aliens?
There is no point in talking about my poor English, but to survive it should still be enough. However, I did not expect that almost no one would be able to speak English here. After all, Taichung is not a capital city. The campus surrounding looked like a wilderness without any trace of English influence. What a pleasure one experienced when finding at least one restaurant, out of the dozens, with pictures of meals.
In any interaction with the locals, I felt like a newborn. Even a child at the age of three can squeeze more out of himself. What irony. I set out from the heart of Europe to the heart of Asia to get to know my soulmates. Unfortunately, how? Unlike my classmates, a simple greeting 你好, supplemented by the question of how you are 你好嗎, was not enough. In vain attempts at a more advanced conversation, I let my eyes to cry, complemented by the phrase: 對不起, 我 的 中文 不好 (liberal translation: I‘m sorry but my Chinese is not worth a penny.).
I have found inspiration for my only sentence in the following song. P.S. watch out, the song is extremely catchy! Especially for those who have gone through the same hell.
The Challenges Were in the End Stronger Than Myself
There you go. For someone banality. Nonetheless, for me, it was the 3 biggest challenges I had to face when I was abroad. In the day-to-day confrontation, I started to step out of my comfort zone. I began to realize the differences in my past and present life, which I had previously overlooked. Where is the greenery I am used to from home? Where is the pleasant autumn weather with a last touch of summer, when you enjoy the last sun rays of this year? As time went on, I missed my home more and more. I experienced a cultural shock that shook me more than I could have ever imagined.
Don’t get fooled by this relatively negative article. Taiwan is a great country full of even better people. But, I wanted to emphasize how deeply I failed in stepping out of my comfort zone. What were the 3 biggest challenges I faced. And how I eventually succumbed to all the changes that awaited me here. Immediately upon returning home, I knew that this trip showed me that I still have a lot of things to work on.
Should You Leave Your Comfort Zone?
It is not in vain that everyone should step out of their comfort zone. This is an opportunity to realize your weaknesses and shortcomings. This is the test that can teach you a lot, if you are open to it. And so the next time you find ourselves in a difficult situation, where you do not know how to proceed. You fumble and stress with anxiety weigh you down. Let open yourself to this challenge, let’s face it and learn from it.
And what did the challenges teach me? Well, let’s check that out in my next article.