Routine: the reason of stress or the source of inspiration?

Routine is a generally accepted negative part of the reality. Pronounce it: r-o-u-t-i-n-e-e-e. Something mundane, something regular, something we got used to. On the other hand, having something regular help us to find a feeling of stability, which is necessary for the inner balance and for some sort of comfort.

All my student experience is international. Back in Moscow I am a student from Kazakhstan. Here I am an exchange student from Russian university. Last four years of my life were the unstoppable adjustment to the environment, the climate, the currency, the mentality. Therefore I start thinking that chaos and lack of stability is my daily routine. This is the key to my inspiration, because every change pushes me to create: articles, blog posts, films, drawings. This is the engine of my life that moves me to the small discoveries every day. I learn more about myself and about the world, scenery of which has a tendency to change rapidly.

Thinking of experience I gained during my exchange semester I can’t help interpreting it through pieces of texts I have created. The most significant works I’ve done are two short films about exchange students. The first one was for the contest in Russia. I asked five my friends to give me short interviews and I made a film for three days. The only thing I kept in my mind during the post-production was “Why do I always so close to break the deadline?”, but watching the film afterwards made me feel very proud of myself.

On this tide of inspiration I have finished the project for the course Smartphone video documentation of my exchange semester in LMU. It was a group work and I feel like the key to success in this film was in the cooperation with the right person. The film we made was about our daily life in Munich, and what I appreciate the most is that all nice pieces of our daily routine here is captured on the video.

Munich daily

Re-watching these films – I don’t do that often though – I understand that I enjoy them that much because the films are inspired by relaxing lifestyle of me in Munich. I have done a lot of shootings throughout four years of my Bachelor studies, and the thing I’ve only realized recently was that I really like interviewing people. Think about the questions I will ask. See, how the mimics of respondents change when they listen to the question, or when they choosing right words to answer, or they make jokes. Check, whether the microphone and the camera record properly. These are the concentration, and long hours in front of the screen, the arrangements and the constant thinking. All the components eventually bring me a tremendous satisfaction. To realize it, I needed more time on my own, I guess, which is close to impossible when I am in Moscow.

Moscow daily

Looking back to the three and a half months I’ve spent here I feel that I took everything what I could receive from hours spent alone. Being in a new routine helped me to look carefully at my daily life in previous semester, and make some decisions about the up-coming spring routine. It is already waiting for the end of February when the plane will bring me back. It is waiting for me in the terrifyingly giant airport in Moscow and it looks like my close people, my faculty, and the bustling city around me 24/7.