Hello everyone! I hope summer is treating you well. It’s nice to finally have time to relax a bit. I for one have been running around like a crazy person trying to fit everything into these short months of summer. I must say that the past three weeks have been quite exciting so far. To start off, I figured I’d test my boundaries and see if I could handle skydiving. I’ve always been curious about what it feels like to fly and now that I have experienced it, I may be in big trouble of becoming addicted to it! When I got home, I immediately headed to Cape Cod where I went to work with Serv Corps—a group similar to Habitat for Humanity that works to build and restore houses. Although I was the youngest one there by about 50 years (yes, the builders were all nearing their eightieth birthdays), I managed to tear down an old porch railing and replace the rotted wood with new spindles. The porch ended up looking pretty good, if I must say so myself and I can now say that I’m a master at the Sawzall and the nail gun! From the Cape, I headed up to Dartmouth for my big sister’s graduation. Conan O’Brian was the graduation speaker—I almost got close enough to shake his hand, but didn’t and George H.W. Bush was there to receive an honorary degree. I almost used the same port-o-potty as him, but didn’t. At least I got to see two famous people in the same place at the same time. That’s a first for me!
So I am finally home and working through the woods from my house at the barn where I keep my horse, Oliver. I don’t know if it is just because I have grown up with horses that I don’t mind the smell of manure, but I know for one thing that I may come back to school in August with huge biceps from shoveling poop and moving hay bales all day. Great.
Although I love nature, I have had some close encounters with the local wildlife on my walks to and from the barn. I almost stepped on a newborn fawn the other day when I wasn’t looking because apparently their instinct tells them to freeze in dangerous situations. The poor little guy must have been so scared. If that wasn’t close enough to wildlife, the next day I came a few steps away from losing my toes. A huge snapping turtle decided that it wanted to lay its eggs in the woods, far away from water, right smack dab in the middle of the trail. I guess what I learned from these two encounters is to look up when walking and to not be distracted by my phone when in the woods. Stupid technology! The woods are too pretty to be distracted by phones anyways. I mean, look what I was missing! The sun was beautiful that morning peeking through the trees!
I hope everyone’s summers are going well. Get excited for AESOP! I sure am! Talk to you soon.
-Ellie
Skydiving for the first time as part of a sponsored Bates Outing Club trip.
Oliver!
No comments:
Post a Comment