29. Hiking

We've had a warm spell recently, so with cloudless skies above us, my dad and I decided to go on a hike. The mountain we chose (if you can even call it that) is less than an hour from our house, and the hike itself is only eight miles round-trip -- the perfect amount for gorgeous views at the top and a sense of accomplishment once you've made it down, but not so strenuous that you're exhausted for the rest of the day.
At the start of a hike, I always find that my mind is jumbled with school assignments and YouTube videos and job obligations. But after about twenty minutes of walking, my head starts to clear, and I become more aware of what's around me. If you take the hike a step at a time, you can't help but be present in the moment. You can do nothing more than focus on what's right in front of you. By the time I get to the top, my legs are burning, but my mind is free of any distraction.
Being on top of a mountain really helps to put things in perspective. Humans are nothing more than dots in the city below, and roads and rivers spread their fingers out over the landscape, snaking through the valleys. All the petty problems seem to float away, and barely even matter anymore.
So little of these hikes are about whether I get to the top; instead, they are about escaping from everyday life, and finally being free.

28. Writing

This year was the first one in a long time that I got to do creative writing as part of my English class. It's something that I've always enjoyed immensely, but in the past few years I've been too busy to find time to write consistently, so I was overjoyed when we did several creative assignments this year.
Instead of the normal post today, I figured I'd share my latest assignment -- I had way too much fun writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it.

The assignment was a pastiche, which is basically a pretentious way of saying that you must imitate either the style or the story line of a specific author's work. Of course, I chose Virginia Woolf; I think that, stylistically, our writing styles are fairly similar, and I loved reading her stories, so it was an obvious choice. But coming up with a topic to explore was much more challenging. I finally settled on how much time we spend doing various things over the course of our lives; sleeping, eating food, exercising, et cetera. But the most ridiculous one was that, over a 79 year lifespan, the average person spends six months waiting at stoplights. Six months! So, in homage to Woolf, I decided to write my paper on this modern conundrum. Enjoy!

It is rather unsettling for one to consider the passage of time. It feels as though our stories are yet unwritten and there is much that life still has to offer us, and yet we have already completed a large fraction of our given time on this planet. Even if we live to see one hundred, our lives are already twenty percent finished. And, while musing upon that, one cannot help but consider the amount of time spent engaged in various activities. It seems we waste an undue amount of time consuming food, sleeping, sitting in classrooms, watching television….  But in this modern society, the crime most plainly incurred against Chronos himself is the torture we all must endure while waiting at a stoplight.

The world is out there for the taking, visible, plainly in reach, but something is suddenly preventing you from seeking it out; cornered, trapped, shoved back as though by an invisible hand. The sudden jolt courses through your spine as you are unkindly jerked to a stop. It is a feeling of wasteful meaninglessness quite unlike any other; to be trapped within the metallic confines of the modern vehicle, sidewalks and storefronts visible, but not quite within reach. It is bad enough when you are moving, making progress to some petty destination likely as devoid of meaning as your journey was, but nothing tests one’s patience like being captured by the changing color of a light. How many minutes, hours, days, months, years, are wasted? In a society so advanced that we have put a man into space and become masters of medicine, why is it that we do not have a system of transport that does not involve endless waiting?

Eyes green with envy, glaring at those next to you who are lucky enough to be turning right; what gives them the power to forgo this photon’s powerful clutches? Are they so important that they must arrive at their destination, whilst you remain trapped?

And where are they going, anyway? Maybe to work their tedious 9-to-5 accounting job, wherein they waste the majority of their time stalking people on Facebook. Or perhaps they work at a fast-food restaurant, flipping burgers and burning themselves on french-fry grease to pay their way through college. A barista at Starbucks? A scientist at the research center? Maybe they are part of a covert operation for the CIA, working under the guise of a shop-clerk, secretly spying on people while they peruse clothes at Value Village. They’re wearing sunglasses, so, seems pretty likely….

 You are wrenched out of your reverie by the rude blaring of horns – the traffic creeps forward, and you are finally moving again. Another minute, second, hour wasted; never to return again.

 

 

27. Goals

I haven't even been out of school for a week, and it's already going by too fast. But, in reality I've got the whole summer left to accomplish whatever I want to. It's pretty liberating, really -- two months of unadulterated freedom, with no homework and very few rules and altogether way too much free time. So, if I want to have a hope of actually accomplishing something this summer, I'm gonna have to start setting goals.

Each summer as part of the summer skating program, we are asked to set goals concerning what we want to accomplish over the next few months. They can be pretty much anything, from landing a jump, to learning a new spin, to improving body awareness and musicality. They could even be something as simple as, "pay attention better in class". We meet once every few weeks to discuss how much progress we've made so far, et cetera, et cetera, and it's all very encouraging, and helpful, and perfectly boring.

But the first few weeks of summer are less organized. There's no pompous coach telling you exactly what type of goals you need to set, or asking you in that condescending voice to read them aloud to the group. No, in the first fortnight of summer, the whole world is open, and you can accomplish whatever you put your mind to.

It's just up to you to do it....

26. Drawing

I used to draw all of the time when I was younger -- on the back of used printer paper, in the margin of my tests, over cardboard shoeboxes.  My homework assignments were covered with disembodied eyes, hands, flowers, abstract swirls, anything I could think of. My pen would wander freely and on it's own accord. Sure, my random sketches were rarely of any sort of quality, but they were nonetheless art, in it's rawest form.
As I've gotten older, however, art (and the reason for drawing) seems to have changed. It has become rigid, formalized, and structured. It's no longer acceptable to doodle on the corner of my math assignment; now, if I draw, it seems as though it has to be on a certain type of paper, with the perfect lighting arrangement, specific "drawing pens", and an engaging subject matter. Gone is the spontaneity of scribbling whatever comes to mind, and with that, gone is some of the artistic freedom that you once had. In this new, more rigid environment, I was scared to explore different styles of drawing, fearful that I would mess something up.
But, looking at this fear, and seeing it written out on paper, makes it seem absolutely ridiculous. Anyway, doesn't the whole idea that you can mess up on something of a creative nature completely fly in the face of a basic tenet of art? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so to say that something is "wrong" or not good enough seems subjective. Even if you're not satisfied with how something looks initially, it's important to remember that art is a process, and that you will improve over time. So don't worry if things don't turn out how you want them to along the way -- go out there, doodle something stupid, make mistakes. But, no matter what you do, keep drawing.

25. Flavored Water

As summer approaches, the herb garden is overflowing with delicious flora, and the kitchen counter is overburdened with fresh berries and melons and peaches. I decided, rather on a whim, to cut up some strawberries fresh from the garden and put them in a glass of water. The results were delicious; the water was infused with the subtle acid-sweet sensation of the berries. Over the proceeding days, I tried a few other combinations, all to overwhelming success. A few were rather unusual (rosemary and raspberry, cucumber and blueberry), while some were more familiar (mint and strawberry). If you have never tried making flavored water before, I would definitely recommend it -- the results are almost guaranteed to be delicious.

24. Cookies

I swear, there is nothing better in this world than coming home to the scent of freshly-baked cookies. It is impossible not to pull the rounds of chocolate-morsel-studded goodness out of the oven and shove the still-soft circles of deliciousness into your mouth.

Second degree burns may occur...

But it'll be totally worth it.

23. Inspiration

I had the chance to watch one of my friends dance in an end-of-year recital this afternoon. It was incredible to see people who I usually see at school being in their element on the stage. Of course, there were the obligatory groups of pig-tailed girls (and the token male) whose performance value was based solely off of their adorableness. However, among the older members of the company, the dances were thoroughly entertaining, varied, and enjoyable. The musicality, strength, and artistry that the performers exuded was inspiring; I came home wanting to dance.

22. Sunscreen

Am I the only one who loves the smell of sunscreen?

Anyone? Anyone?

 Bueller?

I think that sometimes smells create more poignant memories than your other senses. I can smell something and associate it with an event that happened 12, maybe 14 years ago. I remember the most random things; the sweaty stench of the gym where I did gymnastics when I was six, and the chemical smell of the cleaner used at the school I went to when I was ten. Now whenever catch a scent, it brings back memories, good and bad.

For me, the memories associated with sunscreen are almost exclusively positive. The pungent, coconutty aroma reminds me of sweltering road trips and sandy beaches; of building forts in the woods that surrounded our house; of our hands stained crimson from picking pound upon pound of dusty raspberries to make into jam; of the endless, pleasantly uneventful days.

In short, sunscreen reminds me of everything that makes summer so great.

21. Freshly cut grass

Or, more specifically, the smell of freshly cut grass.

Because of some exams going on at my school this morning, our classes started over two hours late. By the time I drove to school, the sun was shining, the sky was cloudless, and it was an idyllic start to the perfect day. As I glided up to school, the smell of freshly cut grass wafted in through my window.

It's mornings like those when everything in this world is perfect, when all the puzzle pieces finally come together and make sense.

20. Friends

I've been thinking a lot recently about how lucky I've been to have all of the great friends that I do at my current school. They are some of the most loving, supportive, funny, and fun-loving people I have ever met. It hasn't always been that way; when I first moved to my current school, I was paralyzed by an intense workload and the massive number of students, and thus I struggled to make friends. But within the past year, I have finally found my niche, and bet dozens of wonderful people because of it. By taking notice of their values, and adapting some of those values as my own, I have become a more open-minded, conscientious person. They have taught me how to think through the repercussions of my own actions and words, and how to stand up for what you believe in. They have taught me how to have fun and make the most out of life. As cheesy as it sounds, my friends have made my school experience better than I could have ever imagined.

19. Chocolate

It was a rather overcast and gloomy day, in spite of the temperature hovering around the low 70's. I planned to write about sunscreen and it's various summertime associations, but it seemed a little hypocritical considering the weather....

so, chocolate!
'nuf said.

18. Cookies

As school is slowly grinding to a halt, classes are easing up and I finally have time to do those things that I enjoy so much. One of the things that I missed dearly is the simple joy of baking cookies. So last Tuesday (on a school night, no less) I resolved to bake a batch of shortbread. I proceeded to spend the next several hours calmly measuring, sifting, mixing, rolling; after a short stint in the oven, the resulting creations were a pale cream color, tinted just around the edges with caramel brown. The rich, buttery scent eminating from the oven wafted soothingly throughout the entire house. In spite of
the heat of the oven scalding my fingertips, it was impossible not to pull a jagged piece of cookie straight off the sheet.

Delicious.