Wednesday, May 19, 2010

A Good Year

I wanted to write something to mark the end of my first year at Baylor, but I didn't really have any great insights or observations to share. It has been a wonderful, life-changing year, but I am sure that anything I could write about the abstract, remarkable ideas and experiences that have and and are changing me would seem sappy and abstract. And, after all, it is not these large things that change us in the end. It is the small daily things we choose to love that slowly mold who we are-cliche perhaps but true. So in order to document my year at Baylor, I have decided to make a list of the small things that I have loved there.

1. The roses that I can see through a window behind the pulpit at DaySprings.
2. The glint of the sun on Pat N. Eff at twilight.
3. Taking out my earplugs to talk to Amy before going to sleep.
4. Driving to get a diet coke with Emily Davis.
5. The corner desk behind Dr. Pennington's office.
6. "Studying" in the Narthex.
7. Reaching the final question of my reflection.
8. Having my phone hi-jacked by Anna (though I didn't really love this one at the time).
9. Squeezing way too many people around a circle table for dinner then discussing free will, physics, and "ambigu-dates"
10.Passing the Peace.
11.The library's strange sliding shelves.
12.The random notes that the bells play.
13. The acoustical anomaly.
14.Seeing the BSB fountains before facing chem lab.
15. Dr. Pennington's "dry bones" and other idioms.
16. Unlocking my mailbox and finding a letter.
17. The gravel crunch of the bear trail.
18. Anna's ability to correct my comma problems.
19. Baking cookies in the gross 4th floor kitchen and eating most of the dough.
20. Laying on the grass and watching the tree limbs and clouds.

I know that there are many more things I could name but this is all that is coming to mind now.
Thank you to all who have made this year what it has been. I have loved it and am looking forward to another year full of lovely things.