Stop and Stare

It's easy to get caught up in how busy life is.
It's easy to let yourself get caught up in a routine (because that's how it HAS to be or you wouldn't get done with all the stuff that needs to get done, right??).
It's easy to let yourself just walk from place to place and become numb to your surroundings because you're either walking too fast to pay attention or because you've seen it so many times that it's all so mundane.

It's easy, but don't.

That's what I've learned over the past few weeks.
I've learned that when you actually take the time you have to slow down and talk to someone from your Spanish class last semester (even when you probably should be walking to the stupid business school) you see things and people you normally don't. And the funny thing is, they're there all the time, but normally you're too busy walking to notice. If you take the time you actually DO HAVE (if you'll let yourself realize that) and slow down a little, I think you'll find that people and things actually come to you. You don't always have to seek them.
If you actually take the time to sit in the arboretum and do your reading during a break, you might actually get to SEE the ebb and flow of classes. See how empty campus can be even at 2 in the afternoon if it's the right time, and see how the sidewalks are suddenly innudated again.

A lot of my classes this semester are about seeing. Seeing from the perspective of a writer, a reader, and a photographer. My journalism professor is encouraging us to look at things in new ways. He says we tend to "tune out" the things in our lives that we see everyday and thus take for granted.

And he's right.