living life in a circle instead of a line

English translation: living life stuck in a routine instead of moving forward

04:35 Mar 22, 2023

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
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English term or phrase: living life in a circle instead of a line

Hello everyone,

From the book "Wanderlust: An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Voyage, a Lost Age" by Reid Mitenbuler.

This realization was a long time coming. Freuchen’s youth was spent stomping through forests, throwing things, splashing through creeks, looking for birds’ nests, digging up plants to find their roots. He preferred the outdoors to classrooms, although he was never a poor student. He’d been a smart kid, an avid reader when the topic interested him, but he carried an inferiority complex regarding his academic abilities. These he later traced to his boyhood friendship with the genius Bohr brothers—Harald, who would eventually become a famous mathematician, and Niels, who would go on to win a Nobel Prize in physics and help establish quantum theory. Even though the brothers never rubbed his nose in their smarts, sitting in class with such brainiacs was like trying to swim in the frothy wake of an ocean liner. By the time Freuchen reached college, he was conditioned to feel out of place at school. He also looked out of place: a towering six-foot-five in his medical school class portrait, built like a bear, his unkempt hair a blond tornado. Not that a doctor needs to appear a certain way, but Freuchen couldn’t help but seem destined for a different sort of life.

For Freuchen, the dockworker’s death forced a reckoning. It made him ask what a future in medicine really looked like: Rise in the morning, go to work, do the rounds, go home, get up the following morning and do it all over again? To him, this was like ***living life in a circle instead of a line***.

I think I understand what live life in a circle means (the previous sentence explains it: rise in the morning, go to work...), but I'm not sure I understand what "instead of a line" implies.

Thank you.

Mikhail Korolev KudoZ activity Questions: 2423 (4 open) (1 without valid answers) (10 closed without grading) Answers: 130
Local time: 18:43

Selected answer:living life stuck in a routine instead of moving forward

Explanation:
A line as in something that progresses and goes forward, like a line does horizontally, as opposed to being stuck in the same routine as if it was a loop, a circle.

Selected response from:

Maria G. Grassi, MA AITI
Italy
Local time: 17:43

Grading comment

Thank you very much, Maria.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

3 +11

living life stuck in a routine instead of moving forward

Maria G. Grassi, MA AITI

Answers

34 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +11

living life stuck in a routine instead of moving forward

Explanation:
A line as in something that progresses and goes forward, like a line does horizontally, as opposed to being stuck in the same routine as if it was a loop, a circle.

Maria G. Grassi, MA AITI
Italy
Local time: 17:43
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Italian
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

Thank you very much, Maria.

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living life in a circle instead of a line

English translation: living life stuck in a routine instead of moving forward

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living life in a circle instead of a line

English translation: living life stuck in a routine instead of moving forward

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