New Horizons to Pursue

I feel stuck in the doldrums right now. Work has been piling up in all of my classes, and though I’m ahead of schedule on most assignments, getting ahead has meant nonstop work for the past few weeks. Normally I have a busy few days, and then a few days free for Netflix and tea and sleeping in. October hasn’t been like that, and it’s got me down in the dumps. I blame the weather, too, which turned nasty and gray and rainy yesterday. Sometimes I want to just bypass October all together and head straight into November – Thanksgiving, my birthday month, and the time of year when it becomes socially acceptable to listen to Christmas music nonstop. Once I passed the trick-or-treating age, Halloween suddenly got a lot less fun. I don’t like scary movies (or being scared at all), there’s a lot of pressure to wear a revealing costume or think of a clever one, and this year I’ve had a surprisingly difficult time even finding plans for the holiday. I’ll be a lot happier when I can spend Thanksgiving break at home with my family, eating leftovers and watching football and not thinking about school for a while. Plus, my best friend will be coming home from Alabama for the first time since she left for school in August. So exciting!

Ignore the rusty bridge - the trees and lake are beautiful in the sun

Today was the first day all week that felt like the pick-me-up I needed. Well, the surprise Halloween candy care package my parents mailed to me arrived yesterday, and that was a pick-me-up too. But today, the sun was shining, even if it was pretty cold. My friend and I took a walk to the lake on campus and crossed a small wooden bridge we usually ignore. I grabbed some beautiful pictures of the sun lighting up the autumnal trees on campus, and I was reminded of how beautiful Upstate New York must look this time of year. I always think of how close I was to going to Ithaca or Syracuse for college and wonder how things would have been different. I would have been much colder, and probably much more homesick. I’ve been lucky to have fantastic professors so far here at TCNJ and wonder if I would have missed out on those experiences somewhere else. Still, autumn always makes me wish I could spend more time out in nature, exploring lakes or hiking mountains or wandering through forests. I guess the little slice of nature TCNJ can offer me will have to do for now until I can pursue new horizons. (I may be listening to the Aladdin OBC recording as I write this post. So it goes. Who doesn’t sometimes dream about seeing A Whole New World or being A Million Miles Away?)