1. Waking up and stretching and pulling on my steel-toed boots Mondays and Wednesdays elongated the patience I had to invest in my O Chem class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

2. Craving vegan cookies while sitting in the library at 11:47pm studying micelles stirred up my intention to be more enlightened, both scientifically and gastronomically.

3. Hiking up to Dogwood pasture and sitting with my eyes closed on my woven blanket knotted my intention to focus on being still sometimes.

4. Showing my sister the bamboo forest on the river trail for the first time allowed me to see how groovy it is to have such banana yellow foliage around.

5. Walking around the Owl’s Nest courtyard in the rain with my sister after she received her acceptance letter gave me a chance to find new corners of Wilson to tell her about for next fall.

6. Holding my grandma’s hand and pointing out the googley eyes and plastic animal scenes hidden on campus initiated me to look harder at things I encounter in my day to day habitual rituals.

7. Building decks and tractor sheds and root ball courts and barns on campus nailed down the importance of creating a legacy in all the places I dwell.

8. Falling in love with my chemistry tutor on the olddarkgreen couch in the Witherspoon lounge made me think twice about a lot of things; I decided to stick with the hard sciences, and with my chemistry tutor.

9. Splashing around in the Swannanoa River with no clothes on during my first week ever on campus solidified my appreciation for movement; my movement from a place that didn’t fit me and my graceful kinetic flailing in the water.

10. Watching the sunset on Dogwood pasture with nothing around but fireflies and cicadas gave me time to appreciate the gloaming splendor and the valley I proudly call home.