A walk in the park

When I talk to graduates of north-eastern liberal arts schools, they always express this overwhelming sense of happy nostalgia for the ‘freedom they felt’ during their time on campus.

Far be it for me to correct this likely-non-existent group of alums that I’ve set up as a foil for a point I’m about to make, but I don’t have a god damn clue what they’re talking about.

Sure, I can say what I want in the classes I’ve chosen, but in nearly every other manner college has begun to feel less like a an ocean and more like a 3×3 shower…with a moldy curtain…and a non-working light…down the hall from me.

But Idiocy aside, I felt like I was about to pop this afternoon. I needed to get off my minuscule and un-meandering campus and get lost somewhere, clear my head.

I considered my options and realized that I had four:

1) SEPTA

2) Feet

3) Bicycle

4) Find a friend who didn’t have afternoon class but also had a car.

I started dialing, and there he was, my savior with a blue Mitsubishi Lancer, my Pal Steve.

It went something like this:

Brrrrrrrrring…Brrrrrrrrring…Chuchuch
S: Hey Nick
N: Hey Steve
S: What’s up
N: What are you doing right now?
S: Nothing, I’m done with classes
N: Wanna go to Valley Forge National Park
S: [Silence]
S: How far is it?
N: Oh about 20 minutes on 422, I’d say.

So off we went! On the way, we stopped at Wawa for gas and snacks but soon found ourselves at the park entrance. We hopped out of the car. Steve and I walked down a path cut into the waste high grasses where thousands of tired and battered early Americans re-readied themselves during the winter of 1777, to face the British in the coming spring. I thought past the trivial stresses of college life, past my jealousy of Steve owning a car–breathed the air, saw some deer and re-readied myself for school. At the risk of sounding pathetic, it was exactly what I needed.

Anyone who says that our tax dollars are being spent badly hasn’t been to a national park recently.

Click and image:

Fawn	Arch from afar
Turkey Vulture	Washington Arch
Two things: 1) I would have trobile taking a col. Wigglesworth seriously 2)I know a kid named Will Shepard, he was a mormon	::Shakes head::