ArboreFun

A typical, miserable Monday morning beginning with three classes in a row starting with an 8am; weather is rainy, cold, windy, and signs of fall finally making an appearance.  I thought no way could this get any worse, right? Wrong. I started the day with my Psych 100 class. It’s in the Sparks building which is only steps away from Willard Building where this lovely English class takes place, so I usually manage to get there quite early. However this Monday felt quite unusual. I sit to my regular seat in English, with only one other person from my class in the room. I sit there for a good fifteen minutes before I realize that nobody else is coming in. Tracing back to Friday, which seemed ages ago, I distinctly remember hearing our Professor telling us to meet at the Arboretum. With this, I bounce out of my seat, informing my classmate along the way, and we rush toward the complete other side of campus. As we’re zigzagging through East, I think, this is exactly where my miserable day started. Fate was tempting me to call it a day and crawl back into abandoned bed which was just mere steps away from where I was at that very moment. But no, I managed to persevere on our trek towards the Arboretum. We reached our class in record time and joined to the group before they split to explore. The class had met under a huge white overhang that looked like it was straight out of a 5 star hotel. Past it was a maze of trees and plants. I was amazed that what only appeared to be a little garden of bushes outside my dorm room window, actually managed to block out the entire campus from our perspective. Under the overhang, we broke up into our respective small groups and were left to own devices. I soon found out that wandering around trees were very peaceful. After a month of being surrounded by thousands of other Penn State undergrads with cars and Cata buses going to and fro; being in a secluded garden with the only other people appearing to be my English class and a couple of other elderly people, kind of put me at peace with my day. Getting lost in streams of colors and scents of the flowers had a very therapeutic effect. I remember thinking: I’ve found my happy place. Getting lost in a maze of trees, being amazed by how many plants are still alive, finding my favorite flower (sunflower), and even discovering huge fountains and gourd pavilions; I didn’t even feel the time fly by. Before I knew it, class was over and everybody was already gone. My group and I made our way back to East and I remember feeling so glad that I hadn’t taken the easy route and went back to bed before even giving the Arboretum a chance. As we left, I realized that the sky had cleared, the sun was shining, and I had the rest of the day to myself; the perfect ending to a disastrous beginning.