Time

It is a well-known fact that time goes by more quickly when we don't want it to. My four months in Italy still feel like a blur. Summers seem to end as soon as they start.

Anyone else who is a senior in college (or ever has been) can probably attest to this. I'm not saying that I don't want to leave. In fact, while I love learning itself, I'm totally over college and ready for something bigger. But then again, I'm not. And that's probably why this semester is about halfway over and I still feel like I just arrived.

This time around, my being busy is taking on different forms. Last fall, I was quite literally bombarded with work (taking the equivalent of seven classes between research, TAing and actual classes). And applying to study abroad (including acquiring a visa, which I still have nightmares about to this day) was the icing on the cake. This semester, I actually have hours of free time. But I'm also writing my thesis in three months.

Twelve weeks. That's about how long I have for the entire process. It is just insane to think that something so meaningful to my college career (and me personally) is being completed in less than three months. While I normally don't enjoy technical writing so much, I am realizing that a thesis is something to be proud of. But for now, it is taking up many hours. (We were told last Thursday that we had to write half of it in a week. Talk about dropping the bomb).

But that week is over, and I now have almost half of my culminating project on paper. (Doesn't mean it sounds like anything Jane Austen ever produced, but it's a start).

I'm definitely neglecting certain things in this whirlwind of a month. I've been looking at my chipped nail polish for the last two weeks, thinking that I should probably take ten minutes to repaint them. Too bad I have these thoughts during busy moments (read: during a seminar or lecture), and not during the more relaxing ones.

And my new black Nikes have yet to hit the pavement. Getting good grades and a healthy amount of sleep have pushed running to the side. It's unfortunate, because the foliage is stunning right now.

But I'm realizing that it is important to make time for enjoyable activities. Like writing. Or going to Starbucks (you can kill two birds with one stone there). Or catching up on Grey's.

Because during those moments, time slows down a little. Even if just for an hour, I am back to writing in my diary at age five, or coffee trips with my friend on our morning drives to high school. Or that summer years ago when I discovered Grey's, fell in love with Patrick Dempsey, and watched three seasons in a month.

Life doesn't pause, but I still can. And I'm trying to take it all in as I go.