College has been pretty good so far- I've enjoyed the food, Missouri is absolutely beautiful, and the classes have been interesting and not overwhelmingly difficult as of yet.
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If there is one thing I had to choose I didn't like about where I'm at right now it would be how far away I am from my hometown. I feel out of place and strange. Don't get me wrong, I love it here! I just wish I wasn't so far from everyone I know and everything that I love to do. Its like the feeling of homesickness, but more like an "I can't do any of the things or hug the people that have made me feel better in the past" sickness.
I've never been homesick before, and I've also never been gone from my hometown for longer than 2 weeks at a time. That is a strange feeling when you look at your countdown board and realize (minus the days you've been at college already) you've got 40 days till you go home for the first time. . . Yikes! I'm super excited to go home and visit all the places I love, eat tacos from my favorite Mexican restaurant, and give hugs to my favorite people and never letting go (on top of hugging my puppy and not being able to move because she loves me so much.)
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This morning when I woke up I just felt ready to quit. I wasn't stressed from homework, I wasn't missing home, and I wasn't tired from lack of sleep (I've kept my normal sleeping hours since coming here.) I felt weird all morning until after I ate lunch, then it hit me. I hadn't done anything fun for myself since moving. I had either been doing homework, spending time with the girls on my floor, or chilling in my room doing whatever. . . But I hadn't actually gone somewhere to decompress, gather my thoughts, focus on Jesus, and get back in tune with myself. So that's exactly what I did all afternoon.
I went down to my car, grabbed my GPS, plugged in my Spotify playlists (I started with my country playlist first- duh), and I took off down a random direction away from campus.
I probably drove for close to 40 minutes before turning the GPS on, telling me how to get back. Missouri has so many beautiful roads. So many of them almost feel like you're driving under an arch made of tree trunks. Fields are everywhere (but unlike Iowa, its not corn fields.) There are tons of horse barns, hay fields, and beautiful hills to drive around in. The best part is that it only takes 5 minutes to get outside of downtown before you're cruising down, around, and over awesome Missouri roads.
After spending just over an hour driving around, I remembered I had packed my hammock in my backpack (just incase I found a cool spot.) So once I got back to campus I parked my car at the dorm, grabbed my backpack from my car (with books, food- haha duh- my water bottle, and hammock in it) and I took off down towards this beautiful grove of trees at the edge of the property. There are tons of different sized trees right next to a small creek with super clear water and cool rocks surrounding it.
There were a few other people already laying in hammocks down there, so I ventured on down towards the creek and set up my hammock between 2 trees right next to the water and just inside the shady section.
I laid there from 2:00-4:00 without difficulty. I finished "reading" (by reading I mean I skimmed it enough to know what to write about and understand the material) a book for one of my classes, and I enjoyed some quiet music from my phone.
After "finishing" my book I laid there for a few minutes with my eyes closed. It was nice. Normally I'd hate being by myself for that long, especially going somewhere without someone with me. This was one thing I wanted to get better at while at school and today was a successful first attempt at being okay out on my own.
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When I got back to my dorm room I grabbed a bunch of strawberries and a mug full of Sunny D and sat down to write this post.
All in all, I feel better for taking the afternoon off for self care. I didn't need to spend money and I didn't need to go anywhere exotic. I drove down country roads and laid in a parachute for a few hours with homework. . . If I can find a way to relax at college like this, I'm sure everyone else can too.
Psalms 119:50
"This is my comfort in my affliction; that your promise gives me life."
Sarah
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