Happiness

Soon, I know I will miss these days. I had forgotten about the busy-ness and pace of college life, and many days I feel as if I cannot breathe. And yet, I cannot complain at all. Each day I find happiness. Most days I'm overwhelmed with tests and essays, presentations and memorization, but I think I've found a peaceful state. When skyping with a friend in the U.K. last night, he asked when my work would be complete. The answer is sometime in mid-December, and as far-off as that feels most days, when I'm wading through research and memorization, writing drafts and science labs while trying to recall if my gas tank is full or if I made a lunch for myself, I don't want December to come. This comfortable spot of my final year of college is tough to say farewell to. I know these are the days I will long for someday soon, or far off. Each day I'm learning. And striving to find peace and grow to be better than the day before. I think of the future often, but the present more.

I love this season. October is beautiful. The weather has been warm and the foliage is bright. I attended a poetry reading tonight at a large and beautiful meetinghouse/church at the University of Vermont of former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins. I drove myself and a group of girls from my poetry course. We sat in the back row of the balcony and struggled to hear most of his poems, but there were a few memorable lines:

The 1790s will never come again. Childhood was big.
People would take walks to the very tops of hills
and write down what they saw in their journals without
speaking.
Our collars were high and our hats were extremely soft.
We would surprise each other with alphabets made of twigs.
It was a wonderful time to be alive, or even dead.

As usual, I was thinking about the moments of the past,
letting my memory rush over them like water
rushing over the stones on the bottom of the stream.
I was even thinking a little about the future, that place
where people are doing a dance we cannot imagine,
a dance whose name we can only guess.

Saint Michael's College.

My housemate Kirsten, speaking for a better society.

My Mom and I in Boston a few weeks ago.

Boston.

My volunteer program co-coordinator, Meaghan after an evening of allowing children to paint her arms.

My internship workplace, Berlin, Vermont.

Stowe, Vermont.