Maddie Goes Outside!

Last week, I had the incredible opportunity to accompany my class to Benbrook Lake and canoe amongst the stars! I grew up canoeing and kayaking on the Caney Fork and Harpeth Rivers in Tennessee, but since coming to college, I haven’t had much of an opportunity. So when I heard our class was going to be able to partake in this activity, I jumped at the chance. While, of course, I was excited to get out in nature in a fun and different way, I was also very much looking forward to being with my class and having the opportunity get to know everyone a little better. That’s why I love Colloquia classes; everyone is excited to spend that bit of extra time and dig a little deeper into the content experientially. And boy did we experience. Being out there under the stars surrounded by nothing but 20 feet of water and each other was pretty amazing.  While being on the water did not allow for many studies of flora and fauna, it gave us the opportunity to spend most of our time simply taking i...

  Over Labor Day Weekend, I traveled to Boulder, Colorado for the TCU game against the Colorado Buffaloes. While it was an incredible game, what was even more incredible was my time spent in the beautiful Colorado mountains. Being from Tennessee, I am used to seeing differentiation in topography in my daily life. Now, of course, I attend TCU- which means I live in a state with an utter lack of mountains. I miss hiking, weaving in and out of mountains on long drives, and simply looking up (or into the distance) and being in absolute awe of what’s in front of me. Looking upon the mountains never fails to make me feel small and insignificant. However, feeling small is not necessarily a bad thing. Instead, it is a good reminder that the world is wide, and it will continue to turn and grow and change and remain despite the problems I may be facing. My problems don’t seem so big as I stand at the foot of a mountain. Throughout the weekend, I experienced the mountains in two ways. First, ...