My first field-journal entry to start off the school year, prompted by my professor of the "Garden of Your Mind" Undergraduate Studies Course.
The Chaos of First-Week Classes
There is a certain paradox involved in sitting amongst the grounds of the Six Pack and the South Mall--where there is a oasis for students to relax or study, there is an open space for students playing rec sports or games just nearby. Where there are people going to their first class of the day, there are others finishing up their last and heading back to their dorm for a nap. Where there is the gentle gurgle of the fountain, there is the blaring alarm coming from one of the construction sights. There is traffic and laughter and birdsong and bugs and loud students and reserved ones and the most amazing part of it all, is that everything inherently belongs to the campus in order to make the campus what it is. We all have our own individual lives and individual paths that either intermingle or perhaps may not even cross over, but we all collectively have one thing in common. We are UT students, faculty, alumni, staff: all longhorns! More than that, we are humans, with lives and aspirations and goals and downfalls and favorite foods and pet peeves, and and for the most part, we all don't really know what the heck we're doing. This, this simple and seemingly obvious fact that yes! indeed we do all have lives, spoke to me most while spending my time on a bench on the grounds. My uncomfortability of my favorite shoes sitting in the mud was outweighed by my enjoyment of watching a cute squirrel. My comfortability was slightly dampened when I realized I was getting kinda sweaty. But then I noticed many of my fellow classmates also sitting nearby, either looking confused or content and this thought, my tangent for my journal entry, occurred to me. It was so intriguing to just sit and observe the roles humans play in the every day garden of society, each with our own methods of cultivating and tending to the path our lives take.
As a side note, I wanted to share one of my favorite blog platforms here for you guys to appreciate! One of my family-friends is the great-great granddaughter of Frances Hodgson Burnett, writer of the Secret Garden. Her name is Keri Wilt, and she runs a blog called "the Well-Tended Life," which seamlessly relates to modern living in more ways than just one.
The blog provides some of her great-great grandmother's most intimate stories, Wilt's insights and interpretation of Burnett's works, and teaches us ultimately how to "bloom into our truest selves."
(Link below)
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