Priorities

During the school year I usually don't have much time for recreational reading. Or rather I should say, I don't make time for it. I've just gotten out of the habit.

Anybody who knew me when I was younger knows that I always had a book with me, and in every spare moment I took it out. I always used to read before going to sleep, and I usually read while I ate breakfast. I even took out my book in the couple minutes I had during passing periods at school.

Now, I have a smart phone. Those moments that I used to occupy with a good book more often than not are spent on my phone, playing a meaningless game or checking facebook and my email (again) or reading random articles I find online because I have nothing better to do in that moment.

A couple weeks ago I saw an article online about how to make time for reading books, and it made me start to realize how much I missed it. So, the next day I threw a book in my backpack (although its not like I didn't have enough in there already!). And low and behold, since I had it with me I found time to read it. Anyway, this has become a longer story than I intended. Books have always been an important part of my life, and I'm really excited that I'm beginning to make more time for them, even at school where I'm swamped with other obligations.

Right now I'm reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. I've read this book many times before, but sometimes I like rereading an old familiar book. It's like talking to an old friend that I haven't seen in a while, but somehow when we talk its like no time has passed at all. The other day I came across a passage in the book that I really enjoyed, and I wanted to share it with you all.

A very well-loved book, with my
very well-loved bookmark.

[context: This is the moment when Aslan, who becomes the savior of Narnia, is first introduced. Narnia is a country in which animals talk, hence the talking Beaver.]

“And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning - either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in his inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you get when you wake up in the morning and realise that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.” (Chapter 7, A Day with the Beavers)

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words (and a Day is Worth 1440 Minutes)

I really enjoy sharing with you guys what I'm up to on a daily basis. Another post is in the works of larger life updates, but I had a really great day last Wednesday that I wanted to share with you all!

At Wellesley we have a tradition called lake day. Basically, its a celebration with food, music, and games that is a surprise until the night before. In past years lake day hasn't been very important to me, but this year for some reason I enjoyed the tradition much more. I met a friend for lunch and we headed over to Severance Green and the lake day festivities afterwards. We didn't stay very long, just to get cotton candy and deep friend bread dough (and flu shots, health services decided to take advantage of the gathering). The weather was perfect, and it was a great day to be outside seeing everybody enjoying themselves.

cotton candy :)

I've never gotten a flu shot
outdoors before!

Since the weather was beautiful, after lake day I couldn't make myself go inside to study. I decided to sit out in the Academic Quad, which is an area in the middle of campus surrounded by academic buildings. It's a pretty busy area of campus, so people I knew kept walking past and stopping to talk. Somebody stopped and studied with me for a while, and one of my professors walked past with his (adorable) dog, and a friend stopped and gave me candy. I tend to isolate myself while I'm studying, so it was a nice change of pace!

Later in the day there was an event in the math department called the math games. I wasn't going to go, but last minute a friend and I decided to go together. Basically we were put into teams, and each team was given one of the math professors as a judge. We were given different math puzzle problems and tried to solve as many as we could. There were lots of snacks and dessert (and way too much chocolate!) and overall it was a really fun event. A few of the problems were games, and they actually made us play the game rather than just explaining the solution. A highlight of the event was when our whole team had to go out in the hallway, stand in a line with either a 1 or 0 taped to our back, and correctly identify which number each of us had. It was a surprisingly nerve-wracking ordeal, but we prevailed!

The obligatory group photo

We ate so much fruit and cheese and chocolate that my friend and I swore we wouldn't eat dinner that night. Until we remembered that one of our dining halls was having a clam bake, and we decided we needed to go. There were tons of clams and lobster shaped cookies and corn on the cob cupcakes (decorated with jelly beans and candy to look like corn and butter) and other wonderful things.

Sometimes I forget to take advantage of all the cool things that happen on this campus. I'm trying to get better at that!

so much good (and slightly strange) food!