Efficiency drives my young life. I am perennially afraid of being five minutes late, and optimizing time is always my resolution come New Year’s Eve. Thus, I’ve long undervalued the experience of a purposeful or meandering walk. They are long, sweaty in July heat and seemingly inconvenient in a city with so many feasible public transportation options. Nonetheless, they are my new favorite activity.
It all began on the first day of summer.
Dizzied with a newfound freedom of schedule, I decided to take a literal walk in the park. Central Park, that is. Rather than streamlining my route, I changed course whenever a new path presented itself. This led me from the calm of The Ramble to a wedding near The Boathouse. From there I passed the knolls a friend and I sled upon in winter before venturing to Columbus Circle. I let my feet guide me forward and my mind drift.
My headphones abuzz with music to match my surroundings, I played Charli xcx’s “BRAT” when I felt like a power walk and switched to Paolo Nutini or Chris Stapleton as strut slowed to a stroll. The activity allowed me to decompress and relish the act of simply ‘being.’ I did not intend for my walk to span the better part of three hours, but I also wasn’t mad at myself when it did. The time felt well spent.
Some days later, I accidentally bought tickets to a movie at the wrong theater. They were non-refundable, and I had already promised myself to actively try and watch movies in theaters across the city. With just an hour before showtime, I realized a good mistake had been made. Another walk lay ahead. Over 50 blocks and a few avenues later, movie theater air conditioning graciously welcomed me inside. Even so, I only wanted to keep walking.
The walk left my Notes app teeming with new places to venture to, my camera roll full of photos of a sunset that peeked between buildings and my mind emptied of the day’s stresses. Walking allowed me to become a part of the world around me rather than just observing it from a car window. Living in California and coming to love L.A traffic accustomed me to this, but I began to favor New York’s walkability.
I favored it so much that for the past two weeks, I traded my beloved oversleeping for getting up an hour early just to walk to work. Along the way, I join frenzied flocks of people in business attire and prioritize a small habit that brings about a larger sense of joy. The simplest advice I can offer is to go for a walk (if you don’t believe me, Lily Saal makes a poetic point about it).
Whether to exercise, appreciate your own company or simply de-stress, just put one foot in front of the other and trust all that the path ahead may bring you.
