And what, you might ask, is the occasion for this post? Surely not simply procrastination? Well, not entirely. I could post about the exhilarating hike I took the weekend before last, in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. You see, I'd never hiked a mountain before, but jumped at the chance, not fully realizing how large Mount Lafayette is. But I did it - and lived to tell the tale. Honestly, it was an amazing experience, looking out not only across a huge, picturesque mountain range, but also at the long uphill trek we'd taken to get to the top, and the long, irregular ridge we still had to cross before beginning our descent. Even below the treeline the views were absolutely gorgeous, and I took a few pictures at a peak (Lincoln, I believe?) across the ridge from Lafayette. I will most likely deposit them at the bottom of this post.
In any case, while climbing, and especially while crossing the ridge, I couldn't deny the alarming comparison of the path up and over the mountain to a semester in college - or the whole college experience, for that matter. You start out easy, and when it starts to get steep, you put some effort into it but you think you can handle it. And then it evens out again, and you breathe a sigh of relief, only to see another steep face up ahead of you. The steep bits start to seem endless, but when you take a break and sit down, you get a second wind that lasts for a little while before petering out again. You finally get to the top and you're unbelievably happy and proud, but then you realize that there's another peak you have to cross, and another, not as large as the first, but given how tired you are... you get the picture. And then, you hit the descent (here I'm thinking that year or two you take off after college and before grad school), when you think it will be easy going, but it turns out that it's way easier to fall or sprain your ankle, and your toes start to get blisters, and the sun's starting to go down... and the next day or two you're SUPER sore, but still feel great that you did it. And a while later, you meet up with those same friends and say "let's do that again!" - Bam. Grad school. I am indeed my father's daughter - by which I mean my father is a master of the metaphor, and that I spent half of my time climbing a BEAUTIFUL mountain and thinking about a metaphor for the higher education system. What an English major.
But, now for the REAL reason I began this blog post. Out of curiosity, and over-thinking, and the fact that I inhabit the future more often than I do the present, I went on Skidmore's website to look at the academic calendar for the next couple of semesters. And I discovered that, if all goes as is (tentatively) planned on the Skidmore College website, my college commencement will occur in 606 days. Scary, isn't it? Well, not for you, for me. Actually, maybe for you too, because my mother makes up about %33 of my readership. Anyway, here's to worrying about the future.
And speaking of the future, I have one last bit of news before signing off. Tomorrow morning I will be submitting my application to study at King's College London this spring. If I get into the program (fingers crossed, everyone!), I should have oodles of things to post about come January - January 3rd, if I understand correctly, and am compulsive about dates.
Somehow, I feel as if the fall semester should be ending already, given that I'm already planning for next semester. But it is not, and for now I am stuck in America, so I shall try to find a few things to write about and keep this thing active until I find myself overseas once more.
Anyway, here are the pictures from New Hampshire:
That's all, folks.
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