Day 237 - 2/8/11

My favorite part of the day is when class ends. Shocking, huh? I get out of class around 4:30-ish so the day is winding down. Literally as I walk back to my dorm I can see the day start to shift into the night. The shadows get more defined. The wind rustles through the trees. All the entropy of a hectic day on LSU's campus starts to rearrange and organize itself. That walk back, to me, is a time to tune in with the environment around me. I don't really consider to be a hippie-ish/flower power kind of awareness. I'm the completely opposite of hippie. It is more of a "Hey, look at the beauty around me" awareness. Beauty is just has an intrinsic quality that is too sweeping and overwhelming to ignore. The overused phase, "Have you stopped and smelled the roses?" stands out in my mind. Maybe it is just my biology background. All of the classes I've taken has really instilled in the importance of observation. To walk beneath the canopy of lush oak trees in the quad and appreciate their meaning. To listen to the birds sing. To participate in something far bigger and better than you can even imagine. Some days it isn't even about understanding their meaning. It is just about acknowledging that they are real and apart of a higher, grander scheme of life.

-R.D.