Rebuilding Rob

Happy Star Wars Day to those of you celebrate. Even if you don’t, May the 4 be with you!

Special thanks to just rojie for today’s writing prompt.

If you could teleport anywhere right now for 30 minutes, where would you go?

I gave this prompt a good deal of thought. The funny thing is, I actually changed my original answer. Initially, I was going to say a tropical beach—somewhere in the Caribbean where the water is so crystal clear you can see straight to the bottom. My only problem with an exotic locale like that is I wouldn’t want to come back after just 30 minutes.

If I had the opportunity to teleport anywhere for a mere half-hour, I’d go to Paris. More specifically, I’d find a café with outdoor seating along the Champs-Élysées.

Since I don’t have much of a sense of smell, the experience for me is all about the sights and sounds. I want to see the city in motion—people navigating their day, the hum of traffic, and the snippets of random conversations drifting by. It’s a radical dynamic shift from a quiet beach to a massive city, but 30 minutes of people-watching feels like the perfect amount of time to observe without feeling the need to stay forever.

The Art of People Watching

I know people who are expert people-watchers. Veronica can sit at an event and just start wondering about the people around us, speculating on their lives or what their conversations might be about. As an aspiring writer, I feel like I should do more of that. Paris would be the ultimate training ground for those observations.

Of course, if I were to teleport there, my one big caveat would be that I wouldn’t bring my phone.

The Tool and the Tether

I’m on my phone frequently—I do all my web browsing and even all my blogging on it since I don’t currently own a personal computer. It’s my primary workstation, but it’s also a tether. I’m old enough to remember a time when we didn’t all have cell phones—or even pagers. If you called someone and they didn’t answer, you just didn’t talk to them. There was a certain etiquette to it; you didn’t call past a certain hour, and you didn’t expect instant access to anyone at any moment.

I miss that sometimes. These days, everyone assumes they can get a hold of you whenever they want just because the device is in your pocket.

I’m well aware of the irony of writing this on a device I claim I want to leave behind. But for those 30 minutes in Paris, I’d want to be fully immersed. If I’m going to zap myself to the other side of the world for such a brief window, I want to actually be there—not looking at the world through a screen, but experiencing it as it happens.

Rebuilding a life takes grit, consistency, and a lot of ‘Option C’ thinking. Whether I’m 900 days into a streak or reflecting on the decade of posts that led me here, the mission remains the same. New to the blog? Start your journey here to see the blueprint behind the rebuild.

Today’s post is inspired by the WordPress Daily Prompt. While I’ve taken the topic in my own direction for the Road to 1,000 Days, you can find more responses to today’s prompt HERE.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like 👍, comment and subscribe below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media and check out my recent posts!

• 30 Minutes in Paris
• The Accidental High Gear: Anxiety, Iron, and the 1,001st Day
• Promoted to Acquaintance
• Artifacts of the Old Life
• The YouTube Tricorder: Tools, Skill, and the Audacity of Potential

AI art created by Google Gemini

The article “30 Minutes in Paris” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob