I spent Monday afternoon outside: walking around campus, smelling the flowers by Billings, reading for class in my hammock. It was sunny, in the low 60s. The quad was full of people playing spikeball and lounging in tees. It felt like the last day of class, or mid-March 2020, when it was warm and everyone was outside, savoring our last moments with friends before going home.
A lot can change in a week.
It’s cold again. Campus is now white. When the sun is out, it’s beautiful. The days are getting noticeably longer—the sun sets late enough that we light candles during Shabbat services, not before. It’s almost 6:00 now, as I write this while banana bread bakes in the kosher kitchen, and I can still see different colors in the sky: dark blue clouds surrounded by whitish light.
This was the first week of crew season and 5:00 a.m. practices, so my schedule has changed a lot, too. My Sunday sleep-in this morning was a 6:35 alarm. (I try not to stay up late on Saturdays to avoid having very short Sundays.) With a peace & justice studies assignment due Tuesday, my first anthropology essay due Friday, and some grant applications due March 1, I’ve been on quite the grind this week.
By Wednesday afternoon, I felt like I wasn’t getting anything done. I couldn’t keep myself focused on whatever I was working on. One second I was highlighting an article about pigmentocracy in Bolivia, and the next, I was shopping for blue and white embroidery floss from JoAnn Fabrics.
I mentioned this when I met with Kate in Career Ed. She nodded and, without missing a beat, asked me, “When was the last time you took a break?”
I gave her a sheepish smile. “Sunday?”
So I didn’t do any more work on Thursday, and I didn’t do much on Friday, either. When I sat down yesterday, I focused again. I banged out a rough draft of that anthro paper, pausing for a trip up to the carillon tower to see my buddy Brynne play the bells. I hadn’t been up there in three years! The stairs weren’t as bad as I remembered. The bell tower’s a cool place; I’d recommend every student make the trip up there at least once. It’s fun to see campus from that high up.
Update: it is now 6:15, and it is dark.
LDOC vibes
These flowers smell so good
Geese at golden hour
Sev at golden hour
The view from Galen Stone Tower
Stairs up to the bells