Avoid Emergencies: Turn off Your Autopilot

Note: you’ve seen this before, in your Application Post-Decision materials. Please review it and make it your goal to live by this suggestion while you’re away.

Can you guess how many decisions we make each day? Gustavo Razetti, CEO of Liberationist Consulting Company, claims that we make an average of 35,000 decisions a day. He writes: “Each of us has developed an unconscious decision-making system to manage routines. It prevents us from overloading our brains.”

It’s true – to some degree, that each of us lives our life on autopilot. And you must admit, it would be exhausting to stop and think intentionally about each of those 35,000 decisions,  

In Wooster you are so familiar with your surroundings, cultural norms, the language of everyday communication and so on, that you navigate much of your daily life on autopilot. them. Crossing Beall Avenue is a good example. Most of us are so used to the traffic patterns, the tendency of traffic to stop for us, the noise level and so on, that we barely look up from texting or conversing with friends when we enter the crosswalk.

You won’t have that same familiarity with your surroundings in your new home. Suddenly you will need to think more about your actions and make conscious decisions. Take a look at the picture below of a crowded street in India. Would you cross the street while absorbed in texting? Probably not, unless you were raised in India and this is normal for you!

Ultimately you are responsible for the choices you make regarding your safety while studying off campus! Many places could be as safe or safer than Wooster, but your lack of familiarity with the culture, language, people, and locales may put you at higher risk.

But there is another simple fact: in a new culture/city/country/language, you won’t be able to manage your life on autopilot! That is why studying off-campus is the perfect time to think about your personal risk preparedness.

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” – Jawaharial Nehru, Indian independence activist and first Prime Minister