I ask myself this question almost every day. Even though I’m not in a hurry, I can’t think about the next job and fully enjoy what I’m doing at that moment. I’m rushing to finish the job at hand immediately. When I exercise, I want to finish it immediately and go home. While I have 8 hours of work time, I want to finish what I want to do that day in 1 hour. When I go on a trip, I want to get there immediately, and after arriving, I want to travel and return home immediately. When I leave the office, I rush to the parking lot and try to sneak in between traffic if there is traffic. I keep looking at the clock. I try to do everything at the same time. I’m not fast, I’m being hasty.
When I look back, I see that I was not as effective as I wanted that day, and at the same time, I did not enjoy the work I did. Even when I go to the grocery store, which is 5 minutes away from home, I try to finish my work immediately. When I cook and eat, I try to do it as quickly as possible. This is not just something that happens to me. I get similar feedback from the people around me. My colleague, who is 5 minutes away from home, runs to the parking lot.
I thought this trait came from my family. I actually always thought it existed and was in our entire family. Because when I look around me, everyone is like this. We call walking at normal speed clumsiness and slowness. We see similar tweets all the time on social media; “I can’t tolerate people who walk slowly.” So why are we in such a hurry? What happens if we arrive somewhere 2 minutes late? We just walk in a hurry, without raising our heads and looking around.
Especially as people living in Istanbul, we suffer from this. I realized this while studying in Sakarya for 4 years. When I got off the bus station or walked on the street, I saw that everyone was in a hurry. After finding it strange at first, I was becoming one of them. Then, without realizing it, I join the group of hasty people. This reality hits me in the face every time I go abroad or go to a different Anatolian city. Why am I rushing? When I visit a place, I just want to see it, take a photo, and then see another place. However, we have time, there is no need to rush. I can enjoy the ground I step on and the air I breathe to my heart’s content. When we go to different cities, we stop being in a hurry and adapt to the pace of life of the people there. As can be understood from here, I think it is not a human-specific situation, but the tempo of cities. I know and see that there are people who are exceptions to this situation, but exceptions do not break the rule.
I think the fast pace of Istanbul makes people very tired. I know that it degrades him mentally, that even when he is doing his favorite hobbies, he does it in a get-it-done-it-now mode without enjoying it. I know that there are many people who are aware of this situation, but I do not think that these people will change the tempo of Istanbul. People do not determine the pace of cities, cities require people to live at a certain pace. People with this awareness can perhaps only determine their own pace. So why do we still live in Istanbul?
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