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Day Two Hundred and Eighty-One:  The girl with the flowers in her hair,

At this very moment behind me sitting atop my printer beside my bedroom door is a plant.  It has yellow flowers, and they’re a tad droopy since I haven’t watered it in a bit, but it sits there and remains bright in my gloomy room.  I’ve decided to not open my blinds anymore since I’m hardly in my room during the week anyway, so as it turns out I’ve always got a light on in my room no matter what time of day (exluding sleeping of course).  My flowers just bring an extra bit of light into an otherwise shadowy cave.

I’ve always wanted flowers in my room, because they bring an extra ounce of life.  I always feel a bit isolated in my room, even with a  cellphone and facebook and umpteenth amounts of social media and internet websites.  Nothing compares to a real person, really, and as the semester rolls right along it becomes harder to see real people, oh university how isolating you are.  But this plant seems to bring me back to the outdoors, reminds me that there isn’t just books and technology, but beyond these walls lies a large earth with grass and dirt and wind.  Gosh, remember wind?  Me neither, I haven’t been outside since yesterday before dinner.

Having flowers with me is just something I enjoy.  When people used to bring me flowers (a long time ago now it seems) I used to leave them in my room until they were beyond droopy and not take them out until another human being commented on them or they fell to the ground.  I just like having them there, they remind me, again, that outside there lies a world that is breathing along with me. 

I think that’s something I wish I could do more while travelling.  We are planning a trip to Peru and as I look through the various opportunities that we could do one happens to be camping.  Now that terrifies me a little in Peru, but it would be relatively safe.  I think that despite the amount of speed-train-travel Europe has, one of my favourite trips has to be to Scotland where we climbed mountains, on foot, through the mud and the mist, hands landing on only rock and weeds to grasp to get up.  There are pictures of me in my Canada Roots sweaters and converse, arms spread, on top of mountains.  Those memories are irreplaceable.  And to be honest are the only things getting me through this term.

I am an adventurer.  I belong out of my own room and on to wilder, exciting things.  But for now if the only thing that keeps me sane is the flower sin my room, then so be it.  Come winter I’m going to spend most of my holidays in the snow with my siblings (if I have anything to say about it) because snow is incredibly fun to play in.  So are leaves… Maybe I should make a pile on my front lawn.

Nothing screams emotionally stable like a 21-year-old university student rolling in leaves on a Tuesday afternoon, right?

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