So it's been over a week since I got back from Salzburg and I'm now at the point where I feel like I was never away. The only obvious thing that reminds me that only a short while ago I was there is that I'm yet to find a safe home for the certificate I received at the end of the summer school so it remains on my desk. Of course there are the many (many, many) photos that I can go and look at any time but otherwise things are back to what I would call 'normal'. However, it is this normality that I resolved to move away from when I got home - and I'm going to try and stick to that resolution.
So what is this 'normality' that I speak of? I don't mean stuff like work and home-life because that is, well, my life so I can't really change that. It's little things like my routine and the stuff that I do in my free time. For example, today is the first time in a while that I've had a full morning and afternoon before I go to work at 5 later. In that time I have sent an important email and dealt with a few other things that needed my attention - good start. Then I found myself at a loose end and so I started playing internet games for some reason. It was almost a reflex because I had done what I needed to do. I'm glad to report that I caught myself fairly quickly and decided to write this post instead of wasting time.
Instead of wanting to move away from normality, I want to change elements of my day-to-day life. Blogging more often was one of the things that I had in mind when I decided that I would start being more productive with my free time. Reading more is another thing and I've been fortunate to have kept in contact with someone from the summer school who has encouraged me to take the plunge into Dostoevsky - yet to see how that will go.
Another thing that I decided while I was away was that I don't use the internet well enough. Instead of playing internet games and constantly clicking through football websites, I should be trying to find interesting stuff to read. Thanks to the person who introduced me to StumbleUpon in Salzburg because you have opened the internet up a little wider for me.
After last year's Olympics in London, the word on everyone's lips was 'legacy' and what the future held for the nation after such a successful sporting event - I wrote about it here last year. I still maintain that it was too much to ask for the Olympics to have a profound impact on the nation as a whole going forward. However, when you consider the size of the task that I have set myself, it seems a lot more achievable. My 'legacy' will hopefully come from my two weeks in Salzburg and the people who I met there. For the first time ever I think I can say that I have had an experience that has the potential to be life-changing - even if only in a minor way.
But as they say, only time will tell whether any of this means anything. I'll get a good idea of the lasting impact that Salzburg has had on me (if any) when I go back to university in a couple of months. Between now and then my job is to try and keep the Salzburg ball rolling and try to tap into as much of the enthusiasm I have about the experience before I miss out on it altogether. Hopefully the longevity of Salzburg 2013 does not equal the London 2012 'legacy'.
Thanks for reading.
Martin.
