Ever have one of those moments where you’re mid-conversation and as quick as the blink of an eye you subconsciously take in all of the elements surrounding you and allowing yourself, for one fleeting moment, to step out of your body and wonder “where am I?” Kin to those startling moments of waking up in the morning, in the same spot where you’ve been sleeping for days, weeks, months on end, and struggle to remember where you are. I had one the other day while seated on an the outdoor patio (is it really November?), munching on a scrumptious brunch with a good friend after a beautifully refreshing sunrise hike on the outskirts of Boulder. There I was, sharing comical life stories with someone who actually is a relative stranger compared to my “good friends” from other aspects of life and it hit me. That fleeting thought, as quick as the blink of an eye, interrupting my entire train of thought, leaving me speechless in mid-sentence yet with a silly smirk on my face as I realize just how weird and incredible life is. I wish these moments would hit me more often, leaving me in my goofy awareness that life is nothing to take for granted.
Things have really started to pick up in life. With two weeks left, students are starting to feel the pressure of endless pages to be read, to be written, to be edited, to be written again, and finally turned in to be graded (eek). It’s an odd pressure though, one that I feel needs to balanced with a an equally strong pressure to escape one’s studies and experience life in Denver. And fortunately Korbel understands this and actually hosted an awesome Halloween party for us. Nothing is better than seeing your academic peers take off their studiousness for a night and replace it for a night of laughing and dancing in a dorky costume.
Life is busy and it’s a struggle to keep it all in balance but that’s what makes it so enjoyable. And memorable. And inspiring to realize how little we can actually control life. It’s more of finding an equilibrium between pressures, keeping your knees bent, staying in balance, and hitting the jumps of life with your truest, most goofy grin.
We’ll just wait and see how I feel next week this time 🙂
AES