My partner and I used to order from this hidden gem of a New York–style pizza place in London. Sadly, they shut down even before my better half moved to Munich. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I found someone offering New York pizza the other day.
Yesterday, we waited over an hour for one wagon wheel of pepperoni goodness, and it was worth it. As usual, we shared half and half, and I gobbled down mine rather quickly. What? Eating only a buttered pretzel for lunch leaves you hungry in the evening! Still, it was worth every penny.
As I lay in bed at night, I wondered how big of a meal my dinner actually was. “I ate half of a 45-centimeter pizza. Was that the same as me eating a 22-cm one by myself?” I roughly did the math in my head and remembered…
My partner and I used to order from this hidden gem of a New York–style pizza place in London. Sadly, they shut down even before my better half moved to Munich. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I found someone offering New York pizza the other day.
Yesterday, we waited over an hour for one wagon wheel of pepperoni goodness, and it was worth it. As usual, we shared half and half, and I gobbled down mine rather quickly. What? Eating only a buttered pretzel for lunch leaves you hungry in the evening! Still, it was worth every penny.
As I lay in bed at night, I wondered how big of a meal my dinner actually was. “I ate half of a 45-centimeter pizza. Was that the same as me eating a 22-cm one by myself?” I roughly did the math in my head and remembered: The area of a circle is pi times r-squared, and r is half of the circle’s diameter. Since there’s an exponential in that equation, varying the diameter, and thus the radius, will change the outcome pretty significantly. End result? My half of the 45-cm pizza was more than twice as big as a 22-cm one would have been on its own. Fascinating!
I thought about it some more. Maybe life is like this too. The area outpaces the length. You’re focused on the diameter. Every day, you add a few steps to your line. You make it longer, and it all feels rather proportional. But a week, a month, or a year later, you look around and realize: “Whoa! I witnessed so much stuff!” The area you covered was much bigger than the length you traversed.
Your life is not just you. There are time, nature, and connection. Other people weave in and out of your story. Where you walk is important, but what you see also matters. You look left, right, up, and down. Your bit of length most affects you, but the area of life itself is much larger than just yourself.
Take it all in. Make time to process. Enjoy life even when it sends you in circles. Sometimes, it’ll bring you back right to a meal you used to love.
Nik
Niklas Göke writes for dreamers, doers, and unbroken optimists. A self-taught writer with more than a decade of experience, Nik has published over 2,000 articles. His work has attracted tens of millions of readers and been featured in places like Business Insider, CNBC, Lifehacker, and many others. Nik has self-published 2 books thus far, most recently 2-Minute Pep Talks. Outside of his day job and daily blog, Nik loves reading, video games, and pizza, which he eats plenty a slice of in Munich, Germany, where he resides.