Hello and welcome to Please Remain Seated! My name is Harry (which, let’s be honest, if you’re reading this you most likely already knew) and for the past few months I’ve been locked away within the confines of my bedroom studying for my A-Level exams. But the truth is, I’ve been locking myself away for far longer than that. We’re living in an age of over-stimulation, wherein technological advances have transformed our lives into an endless media buffet with anything we’ve ever wanted to experience delivered to us at the click of a button. And as a result it seems that we spend a large portion of our time living vicariously through screens instead of actually living. At least, I know I certainly do. We no longer have to leave the comfort of our homes to be satisfactorily entertained, we have the entire world at our fingertips, and so a lot of the time we just… don’t. But I’ve grown tired of this lifestyle. I don’t just want to keep staring at screens; I want to do stuff.
It’s for this reason that I’ve decided to declare this summer ‘The Summer of Exploration’. For the next three months, I’m making it my mission to go out and find as many interesting things and places as I possibly can, both in my local area and, hopefully, beyond, and to document my experiences here on this blog. Many of these may ultimately be rather mundane in nature but the emphasis here is simply on exploring; getting out into the world and enjoying everything it has to offer instead of scrolling through social media, dreaming of a better life that, for some strange reason, seems just out of reach. My goal is to undertake one act of ‘exploration’, to one extent or another, every day, something I feel I’m unlikely to achieve (sometimes it rains and you genuinely just want to stay in and watch Netflix!) but will be aiming for nonetheless. I’m intending for almost all of these acts of ‘exploration’ to involve the world beyond the walls of this building I call ‘home’, however they may occasionally be things such as learning a new skill or some sort of creative project if that feels appropriate at the time. As for the blog itself, I’m intending for this to be a primarily photographic project, with many of the posts simply consisting of an image and short caption, although I’m also planning to write longer posts from time to time.
So, why did I feel it was necessary to create a blog in order to do this? Well, the answer is two-fold. Its primary function is purely to hold myself to account, giving me motivation to actually do all the things that I’d like to do this summer. However, I’m also hoping that through this project I may be able to inspire just one or two other people to do the same; to turn away from the screen and explore the plethora of interesting things that lie right on our doorsteps yet we so often neglect. So, with all that said, I hope you’ll keep this blog bookmarked and check back to follow me on my adventures throughout the summer. Let’s go explore.
Please Remain Seated 