It's been a crazy busy week as we are counting down to the very bitter end of the school year so I promise you I haven't been forgetting to be happy this entire time haha. I'm just going to do one post to cover the week for convenience's sake. But I have quite a few photos to get through, so let's get started!
Day 10: Mainly spent this day recovering from the day before. But like most things in life, it was easier to get through with a friend at my side. We managed to snag our favorite conference room in the science center. We were talking a lot so I don't think we actually managed to get all that much done but it was nice to take a few moments to not feel like a robot.
Day 11: Still a kind of weird day. We had a power outage earlier in the morning and since I was feeling exceptionally lazy, I took the time to journal a little bit. For anyone who doesn't know, I've kept a physical diary for about...9 years now? It's been a while. I think there is something incredibly cathartic about writing things down so that I don't have ten thousand thoughts swirling around my head, demanding attention. Also, I'm going to break a rule and have a second picture that I took that day. It's not some superbly beautiful pictures but one of my friend Sophia when we were playing around in my room. She met my unicorn Frederick and was an incredibly good sport as I put bows on...like everything. I think it's really important here that we acknowledge that we can still be silly and childish and that that is completely okay.
Day 12: I took this on my way to class. I don't have a ton to say about this other than I wanted to capture a moment when it was beautifully crisp and clear out and I was early to class so I had the luxury of being able to take the extra second to take a pretty picture before scurrying off to 8:30 Organic Chemistry.
Day 13: I cheated a little bit with this one. So I didn't actually take this picture with my phone, for obvious reasons. And I also didn't go swimming the day that I posted this. I had actually gone swimming the night before and realized that the pool is actually my physical happy place and many times lets me access my mental happy place as well. I actually was thinking about writing a full post on this at some point but I think one of the reasons I like swimming so much is that it feels like there is endless possibility. Also like there is no way that I can really lose. Swimming is a different kind of catharsis for me than writing is-I think it's much more of a guarantee. Whereas I can still be incredibly upset after writing, that's hardly ever the case with swimming. Swimming let's me take out all my frustration and anger in a productive form. Best case scenario, I have a great swim and calm my mind a bit. Worst case scenario, I'm too tired to think about anything anymore. So I think the fact that it feels like I can never really go wrong with going to the pool is the reason that I keep returning to it. It's not a perfect system, I can't always make it to the pool when I want to because swimming kind of takes a lot of energy for me, more so than any other physical activity. But I feel like in recent memory, every time I have been incredibly stressed I usually also can remember going to the pool shortly thereafter.
And side note-I also realized that I've had a lot of different vistas by virtue of going to different pools at different times. Unfortunately I can never show you these views which is a shame because they are some of my favorite.
Day 14: Ruhlman Day. I wasn't presenting but that meant that I had a long day of studying in sweatpants while everyone was getting dolled up. I had been working with a lot of students though as a public speaking tutor so I was fine with this. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot in terms of the actual flow of the day that was interesting. I had an exam so mainly I was just focusing on trying to absorb that. But, when I relocated to my room, I remembered that I had a guardian unicorn and that he makes me happy. So everyone, meet Frederick my unicorn. He guards my desk.
Day 15: This day was really rough for me. My day started at 8:30 with an exam, I had three back-to-back classes, Organic Chemistry lab and then an insufferably long meeting after that. So really, I had to be a functional human being from 8:30AM-6PM. Eek. And did I mention that there was an essay, problem set and reading due the next day? When all of the scheduled madness ended, I went back to my dorm to eat a quick dinner and then prepare for the inevitable late night of p-setting. Before I got back to the Science Center though, I decided to stop by the campus center and get myself a treat. And I had run low on flex points so this was actually out of pocket. I felt guilty at first for making what seemed like an unnecessary expenditure. Who was I to buy myself something when it seemed like I hadn't done anything noteworthy to actually deserve it? I had probably failed my exam and didn't do so great on a presentation that day. But then I realized that I wasn't reinforcing mediocrity by doing this for just surviving the day. It was acknowledgement of the suckiness of the day and encouragement for the future. Furthermore, self-care and self-maintenance is not actually selfish. Or at least that what I told myself. Either way, it was delicious.
Day 16: Last but not least for this post. I took this picture when I was walking back to my dorm after a marathon problem set session early in the morning, which unfortunately was becoming a bit a trend. At the time I took this picture, I wasn't actually done with everything that needed to get done today (and yes, it did all get done somehow??) but I think I had finished enough so that I could appreciate this view. I walk past this every single day when I go between Tower Court and the Science Center but here's a picture of it, finally.
So, there it is. I am not sure if I'm going to be doing day by day posts this coming week. This past week was kind of hectic so the fact that I remembered to post pictures on the days of is kind of a slight miracle. It all really depends on the timing of everything from now on but i will definitely keep updating my instagram and tagging each of the days for your consideration.
Until next time.
