bus

on the backward-facing seat

last updated on 10th february

The nice thing with Singapore buses is that for some of them, there are two seats facing each other. Forward and backward facing.

Today, I sat on the backward-facing seat.

Before you read on, you have to know that I used to get motion sickness. Like, really bad motion sickness. I remember one time, my mom told me that I can't sit in the last row of the bus because it's the bumpiest.

To this day, I'm not sure if that's true. But I still avoid the last row of the bus.

But personally, I think the view from the backward-facing seat is better. You get to see where you've been, not where you're going.

I like that. I like looking back. I like looking back at the things I've done.

Call that a form of nostalgia, if you will. Egocentric, if you feel compelled to.

But humans are creatures of habit. We like to remember.

There's actually a psychological phenomenon for this. It's called the reminiscence bump—the tendency for people to remember events from their adolescence and early adulthood more vividly than other periods of life. Scientists believe this happens because those years shape our identity.

Maybe that's why I like this seat. Because sometimes, when you don't know where you're going, it helps to remind yourself of where you've been. Of the places you've passed. Of the things you've done.

The streets you traveled still exist, the things you did still happened. You can't go back, but you can remember.

Plato had a theory about this. He believed that all learning is really just remembering—what he called anamnesis. That deep down, we already know the truth, and it's only through reflection that we rediscover it.

Philosopher Donald Schön also talked about the idea that by looking back at what we've done, we learn, we grow, we refine ourselves.

Irony, isn't it?

The backward-facing seat, the one that lets you see the past, might just be the best way to prepare for the future.