I don't one hundred per cent know why, it's just one of those days that lives in the back of my memory and makes me feel happy each time I think back on it. It wasn't anything super special. I woke up thinking it would be a normal day. And it was, for the most part, just the normality of it and the little things that went right made life great.
I woke up to grey skies, which to most people is a downer, but to me is a sign of rain. And rain to me is a sign of fresh starts and washing the world clean. It's a promise of green along the hills and warm firesides. It was a Wednesday, and Wednesdays are the calmest days of the week. I dressed up in an outfit that I love, a cute skirt and my new denim jacket, and went to breakfast as usual. I only have morning classes on Wednesdays, so I'm done with school by 11AM. The classes were interesting, and I felt awake and engaged in both.
A priest who lives in the area had come up to campus to have lunch with me and a few other freshman at my college who went to high school with me. I'm still very good friends with the guys who came with me to college from high school, but I don't always get the chance to sit down and have lunch with them all. It was fun to all be together and catch up with one another.
Someone had been able to cover most of my work shift while I was at lunch, but as soon as I was done I changed into joggers and a t-shirt and went to work, though I only had about twenty minutes left of my shift. I washed pots in the school kitchen for twenty minutes, then clocked out and started to head back up to my dorm. It was beginning to drizzle, and as I cut across the grass toward my building, the campus dog started following me at my heels. He's an old dog, been the school dog as long as I can remember, but he was keeping up with me as I walked.
I stopped at the turn where I would go to my dorm, but Rusty the dog kept going toward the hills. He stopped and looked at me and I thought, why not? I followed him up behind the dorm buildings and crawled through a gate and hiked up the hill. At the top of the hill, I could see the entire campus laid out before me like a blanket. The light mist had become a thicker drizzle, and water droplets dotted my phone when I brought it out to take a picture.
I got back to my dorm building and had a calm few hours in. I read in my fuzzy socks and friends came in and out of my room to chat and watch the rain with me through my window. There's a tree right outside my room, and I love to watch the leaves bounce under the weight of the water droplets.
After an hour or two, I got dressed up again. My dad was coming to pick me up. I borrowed my friend's boots and wore them with fuzzy socks and tights, a skirt, and my military jacket. I walked down and met him at the beautiful school chapel.
We drove home and I got to see my brothers and sisters for a bit. My mom, sisters, and I drove up to Santa Barbara to go see a production of Cinderella at the theater on State Street. Santa Barbara was all dressed up for Christmas, and there was even a live band playing Christmas carols. The lights reflected off the wet sidewalks, and the music made it feel like a movie scene.
The show was so well done and very cute, and I walked out after with the kind of glowing happy buzz only the theater can give you. It was pouring rain, and we had no umbrella, so my mom, my sisters, and I raced through the Christmas-themed streets back to the car. My boots kept my feet warm and my face got numb from smiling.
Mom drove me back to school, and I watched the rain pound on the windows. The heater in the car made me sleepy. I got back to school and said goodbye to my mom, and climbed into my dorm through my friend's bedroom window because the front door was locked.
2018 has been a "living in the moment" year. I didn't make any major goals for this year because I knew it was going to be a crazy one, and I wanted to focus on staying positive and present throughout it all. I graduated high school and moved away to college and turned nineteen and met a lot of new amazing people and gained some new perspective and grew a lot. I have high hopes for 2019.
Question: what kind of posts do you want to see from me in the new year?
