{"id":1924,"date":"2013-01-27T20:54:02","date_gmt":"2013-01-28T00:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/?p=1924"},"modified":"2013-02-05T16:15:42","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T20:15:42","slug":"my-happy-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/2013\/01\/27\/my-happy-place\/","title":{"rendered":"My happy place"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, we got a few inches of snow, which was very exciting and made the ridiculously cold weather a little more bearable. \u00a0That day, I only had one class in the morning and was not feeling too well (like 99% of campus), so I decided to use my spare time to rest in bed and watch the snow from my window. \u00a0I actually watched the snow for a solid two hours- which is not particularly remarkable because I often find myself focusing on little things for hours without realizing. \u00a0This was a good reflection time for me because it was the end of the week, and I was very exhausted. \u00a0On top of being sick, I was anxious about the track meet that I had to wake up for the next morning. \u00a0The snow accumulating on the ground seemed to white out all of the stressors of my week.<\/p>\n

Anne and I were talking in the room about how the snow didn’t look like it was falling at all, just floating and fluttering like snow in a snow globe. \u00a0During the 2 hours of snow-gazing from my window, I fell into a Robitussin-induced delirium and imagined myself taking a break from a European ski vacation:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

After hours of immobility, I decided that I was not dying and that it was time to rouse my senses. \u00a0I put on some boots and trekked across campus to pick up a package from the post office. \u00a0While cross-campus walks are typically burdensome, this one was not. \u00a0I instantly became Frodo during that snowy mountain scene in Fellowship of the Ring.<\/p>\n

Walking through snow is a rare and fascinating experience for me, being from Virginia Beach. \u00a0We’ve probably had less than 10 major snows during my lifetime- and by major snows, I mean anything that sticks to the ground.<\/p>\n

I was entranced by the powdery snow. \u00a0I ended up walking to the Westhampton Green because I had no desire to go back indoors. \u00a0I was spinning around aimlessly and alone in the -100 degree weather like a crazy person. \u00a0 Looking around at all the white, snowy plushness was amazing. \u00a0It was like our whole campus had a surprise White Party like P. Diddy throws each year. \u00a0It felt liberating to be completely disconnected from my phone and other technology- it was just me and the snow (actually, texting with gloves was just difficult).<\/p>\n

I guess I had two reflection spots this week: \u00a0one was my bed and the other was the Green. \u00a0They were both very important for me to reflect and escape to a magical winter wonderland. \u00a0It was great that I ended up feeling well and was able to enjoy the snow first hand, not just from my bed. \u00a0I am a true believer that reconnecting with nature is an effective way to relieve stress. \u00a0It was a truly wonderful thing to experience the snow the way that I did. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, we got a few inches of snow, which was very exciting and made the ridiculously cold weather a little more bearable. \u00a0That day, I only had one class in the morning and was not feeling too well (like … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1878,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6246],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflection-point"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1878"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}