The Simple Beauties

Leaving campus the other day, I was exhausted. I’d finished a long week of training for work which I had been key in planning and executing, and then had conquered another year of New Student Orientation. But strangely, I felt no satisfaction or relief in the fact that these two commitments were finished.

I began to realize that the completion of these events meant the beginning of another. My final year at college. Suddenly I was filled with a wave of sorrow at it being my last year here. What if I haven’t done everything I’m supposed to, what if this is my last year with all my friends - the what if’s and worries flooded in.

The next morning I went on a hike with some of my friends from work. Sadly, I still struggle with the altitude difference between here and home and part way through the hike, realized I was not going to make it much further. I sat down by the river to recover while the rest of the group went on ahead.

When the group returned and I joined them for the rest of the descent, I was feeling so much better, but not just physically. Sitting by the river and listening to it filled me with the strength I needed to embark on my last year here. I do not know what this last year will hold, or what my life will consist of when I leave this campus, but I am ready for it. The river is on my side.

The mark of a successful man is one that has spent an entire day on the bank of a river without feeling guilty about it.

- Chinese Philosopher