College isn't Easy, but it's Possible

"College is easy. It's like riding a bike. Except the bike is on fire and you're on fire and everything is on fire and you're in hell." ~Anonymous

And I couldn't agree more. Although I am probably biased as it is the week before finals weeks, and its feels like all the common sense and logic in the world has been tossed into the air like fairy dust, but instead of making one fly you just cough like the air is filled with toxic dust.

Yes I'm being a little pessimistic, deepest apologies. To be honest life is far better then I could expect it today at this time of my life, compared to those horror stories I have heard from my friends. No, I cannot remember the last time I got a full night's sleep, or could take an entire day off to just relax, but some of my lack of sleep has been due to evening spent with friends watching movies, talking, dancing in the warm spring rain...

The last few weeks have been filled with wonderful moments and memories: climbing the large magnolia tree in the courtyard to sit among the heavily perfumed blossoms, extreme photoshoots with my ballerina friend, hilarious swing dance classes then ended collapsed on the floor in giggles, all night henna parties and waking up the next morning to lovely golden red designs winding around hands, feet, and legs. There are many more, I have a scattering of friends across campus, and have reached that happy point where I cannot walk anywhere without running into a general acquaintance. Best of all I have my little group of friends who are sitting in my room waiting when I come home from class, or wake me up in the morning ready for breakfast. Join me for nightly adventures exploring campus in the moonlight or the rain. People you can collapse onto with laughter, and cry on in tears. This is a gift so very dear to me, and something I am eternally grateful for a little posse before the end of my first semester.

From a recent photoshoot, connecting dance and nature.

I am surviving the classes, slogging through the massive array of projects and test that encompass these final weeks. Had a moment of fear and doubt when I failed a placement test on the first try for a required course I needed to get into, I quite nearly fell apart that this was the end. I was simply going to fail college, but it rained that night. Sending the smell of cherry, pear, and magnolia blossoms into the air, a warm rain fell gently onto the steaming bricks of the courtyard, and I went out and danced. Sometimes its the only reasonable thing to do! My friends joined me, and holding hands we spun in circles, faces upturned toward the heavens, laughing in pure glee. A moment of madness turned to joy. I feel like this is the essence of college, there is rarely a constant, it is a time in your life in which you can walk into town barefoot without turning a glance, or dance in the rain, clothes and hair soaked with water, and no occasional onlooker thinks of the peculiarity of it. You can fail something, collect yourself and try again, as I did with that ridiculous placement test, achieving a high B just two days later.

The actual finals haven't hit me yet, who knows the state I will be in by the time those are over, but well equipped with supplies from my dear long distance friends (tea, frosting, and cheese being the essence of this), I now in the end I shall conquer this conclusion of my first college semester.