[Collaborative Magazine] July Theme: "Something that has recently changed my way of thinking"

"The luxury of discarding convenience"

Recently, I canceled a subscription I had been using for a long time. It was that convenient delivery service where everything arrives the next day with the push of a button.

The reason I canceled it wasn't because of some grand awakening to minimalism. I simply felt a sudden fear that my life had become too "frictionless." Whether it was a seasoning I had run out of or a new book, I could have it placed at my front door by tomorrow with just two taps on a screen. It was efficient, rational, and perfect. But in exchange for that convenience, I felt like I was losing the "tactile sense of living."

Since my way of thinking changed, the way I shop has changed too.
I go out of my way to walk 25 minutes each way to a small local shopping street. To buy the seasoning I'm looking for, I exchange a few words with the shopkeeper, like "It's hot today, isn't it?" If I want a book, I browse the shelves of a neighborhood bookstore without a specific goal. There, I find chance encounters that algorithms wouldn't recommend.

We live in an era where the term "time performance" is celebrated. It is considered righteous to cut even a second of waste and reach the correct answer via the shortest route. However, isn't the richness of life actually found within that "discarded waste"?

By letting go of convenience, my time has become a little less free. It's a hassle to go shopping on rainy days, and there is a frustration in not being able to get what I want immediately. But the very process of stopping, improvising, and interacting with others because of that inconvenience feels like the greatest luxury to me now.