Adventure is Out There!

It's October 15th.  Thursday.  4:40 when I'm starting to write this. I'm drinking a dirty chai. It's a day. You know, your typical day filled with  shuttle rides, caffeine headaches,  and statistics naps. Yet.  My day was a bit brighter thanks to a best friend.  We only talked for a half hour, not even, but time doesn't have to matter.  She's one of the most empathetic friends I have.  When she looks at you, when you are rambling off your struggles, you know she cares.  And it means the world. In this fast-paced college-life, it's refreshing to sit, smile, laugh, vent about this common thing we all do called life.  I hope you have someone like that in your life. If so, find them. If not, find them.  They'll add the needed chocolate to your seemingly bland day. 

It's a cold, dreary, rainy day.  But, that's not such a bad thing, really.  Maybe waking up before the sun rises on these types of days is a bit painful, but these cold, dreary, rainy days are accompanied by genuine good. coffee shop chats soup beanies sweatpants yellow umbrellas rain drops on a windowsill puddles  rain boots tea the good stuff of life that isn't quite so good unless it has that backdrop of the usually dreaded cold, dreary, rainy day. 

I never did really blog about my summer. After making the trip home, I did try. I felt out of place, I ached for all of those I said good-bye to and I yearned to be at the place that had become my summer home. To deal with that, to express it, to find words to match, I tried to blog. The draft is still sitting in my list of posts, unpublished. Now, I'm sitting back down, typing up this blog post in a coffee shop by my apartment. My ice coffee is long gone. My waitress has long since left, I have a new one that keeps checking up on me. I'm in a good place. Not just physically (though this coffee shop is a delight) but emotionally and mentally. I love moments like this, moments you can just sit, smile, and think,"Life is good." It truly is. For those that I've connected with over coffee or over cookie dough or even those that may have seen my sporadic snap chats, you already know that this past summer for me was truly incredible. I've grown. I'm a diffe...

Sometimes, you come across the goodness of life. You pause, breathe in, and can't help but find yourself smiling. Here, living on a mountain, I'm breathing it all in, I'm living to the fullest. I can honestly say that I love it here and have been the happiest I have been in awhile. I'm running, swimming, looking at the stars, researching, learning, reading, laughing, loving, eating, It's beautiful. I'm surrounded by the most incredibly intelligent people in such an incredibly gorgeous place. I've picked the sweetest wild strawberries for goodness sakes! How can life not be good?! For the people that helped me get here thank you. Because this summer, these experiences, are the good stuff. and yes, I'm sappy. I'm well aware. But honestly, I can't help but be sappy because sappy is how I'm feeling (especially surrounded by these old library books here in the library). If life's feeling humdrum or lacking luster, go for a ru...

Sometimes the thoughts race. They rampage through your mind, refusing to stop, refusing to breathe. Questions question questions. The racetrack is an endless circle, never ending. No light at the end of the tunnel. But then you find yourself sitting there. Looking at an old fire place, framed by bookshelves of books. Old books. Books that smell of the wisdom they contain. You breathe in. breathe out. The deep bass echoing in your earphones absorbs you, encompassing you, enveloping you and pushing out those racing thoughts. You sit there. You breathe in. breath out. It's all good. Life is good.

It's been a week..a week and it feels like I've always been here, but at the same time just got here.  My typical day starts at 6:00 am, just as the sun is waking up. Dressed in all the layers and with binoculars in hand I either assist my grad student injecting females or search for nests.  These birds, dark-eyed juncos, are songbirds that nest on the ground. Yep, on the ground so they are predated a lot . This means that majority of nests fail (so sad) and we are constantly looking for more new nests or re-nests. When I found my first nest, you should have seen my face. It was the week's highlight.  That's in the morning. In the afternoon is nest checks, where we check up on nests and/or take measurements/blood samples from the nestlings/parents. These birds are so goshdarn cute. Today I held day 0 (just hatched) nestlings. Nature is incredible. Hands down. Incredible. These little guys are so dang small, so tiny. You can see their hearts beating.  ...

As I stand there, brushing me teeth, I stop. The most random thought just jumped to the forefront: "Life's really a boxing match. Life's a boxing match and I'm playing it all wrong.... Why am I throwing the punches and taking the hits? God should.  He shouldn't be on the sideline, waiting to sub in.  I take a stab at it, get overwhelmed, and then tap out.  Really, though, I should be letting him take my hits, take my punches." Weird toothbrush thoughts, right? I don't know where that came from, but it was something I had to write down, had to share (despite the already crazy number of life analogies out there).  Maybe writing it down, maybe seeing this weeks, months later will remind me that God's the best boxer there is.  I just need to trust Him.