At Least Once, Do Nothing.

10 July 2013

Treading water for our daily workout.  Kailey lasted 15 minutes, Chelsey and I…less than 1 minute

I have finally nailed down what I am going to write my Supervision on. Simply put, I am going to analyze creativity, structure, and innovation through a case study of Apple Incorporated. This company has hands down dominated the tech market in nearly every area imaginable. After meeting with my supervisor, the great Stefano Taselli from Italia, we decided that there would be no better way for me to understand the relationship between creativity and structure than to analyze the people who do it best. Before I left for Europe I remember seeing my brother read Walter Isaacson’s biography on Steve Jobs. Seeing him so engrossed in it’s pages made me understand that I needed to read it too… I thought that would happen after all the chaos of Cambridge was over, but now I believe it is going to happen sooner.

I visited Granchester Meadows today with some friends. After my class, The Marriage of Spirit and Matter, I ran from Kings to Granchester along the river Cam. The birds were singing, and the river was filled with people punting up and down in their boats. The spirit of Cambridge is something I never want to forget. Unlike America, it is unheard of to be busy. People take time to relax, to enjoy, and to think. Being American (and just being me) I love to have schedules and fill up every second of my day with plans and tasks. I have been told over and over again by my Cambridge professors that it is mandatory to do nothing at least once a day. Let me tell you, this is hard. I still have not succeeded and I have had a weeks worth of attempts. Granchester Meadows was the closest I think I have come to fulfilling this, but most of the time I was swimming and climbing up giant trees… These trees line the river bank and have several rope swings in which you can latch onto and propel yourself over the water. On my first try I landed in a horrible back first position on the water. That sure was a backslap! Despite my clumsiness I enjoyed continually swinging and jumping into the beautiful water. What a great outing from my studies!

Not quite like cliff jumping at Lake Powell, but pretty fun anyways!

I am sitting in the library at Kings College with absolutely no brain power left. Kings is one of the 31 colleges that make up Cambridge University. The library is fantastic and if the books could scream I would be a hundred percent sure that I was in the Hogwarts restricted section. My classes are fabulous, but European History is kicking my trash with all the required reading. I decided not to purchase the books because I want to force myself to spend as much time as possible in the Pembroke, Kings, and Cambridge University libraries. Being in places like these doesn’t happen everyday, so I want to take full advantage of it.