Watch Where You're Going

The route that I take to the Trinity Trail is a precarious one. I don't drive there because even though it's a little far, it's definitely not worth the hassle of getting my car out of the parking garage, finding someplace to park, or wasting gas. When I leave campus, I walk down Rogers Road until I cross Colonial, and then I keep walking along the same road until I hit the Trinity. On Friday I used this typical route to take a walk, set up my hammock, and enjoy the beautiful weather while I read a book. It was an amazingly relaxing afternoon, one that was much needed after the past couple of weeks I've had. But I will say the journey there and back raised my stress levels a bit.

You see, when traipsing down Rogers Road you come to a hill right as you cross Avondale Avenue. Hills aren't so bad, but this one is situated on a pretty intense curve. On the way to the Trinity it's nice because the walk is downhill, but you have to walk on the inside of the curve. My mother always told me that you should walk or run against traffic, and bike with it. So the Rogers Hill presents an interesting safety versus comfort quandary. The downhill is nice, but you're obscured by the curve for a much longer time. I often find myself walking on the line that separates the two lanes so that when a car comes speeding up the hill around the curve they see me in plenty of time to slow down. When walking up the hill, it's the opposite problem. It's a pretty steep hill so the walking is more strenuous, but the period of obstruction is much shorter than when walking down the hill. However, it's also scarier because people take the hill as an opportunity to coast, so the cars are coming at you at a very high velocity. 

Down the Rogers Hill

Up the Rogers Hill

There are two trains of thought that run through my mind every time I have a showdown with a car on the Rogers Hill. The first is along the lines of this: Why would someone drive this fast up or down a hill? They need to slow down! If I get hit, how am I going to tell my mom this? And, when the cars fail to move over: Watch where you're going! The second train of thought that runs through my mind is more like: They got caught speeding down a hill. Good thing I was here to make them slow down. Bet they weren't expecting a pedestrian on THIS road. And so my thoughts go back and forth, from frustration that the cars come speeding down this road in the first place to moments of relief when I survive another encounter with the cars.

However, with these thoughts fresh in my mind on my Friday walk back to campus, I was struck with a realization (literally). I'm usually so frustrated with the cars not paying attention to where they're going, but as I was walking along the sidewalk I received a reminder that sometimes I don't pay attention to where I'm going either. I was looking down at the ground, trying to crunch acorns with my feet. But then all of a sudden I'm practically clotheslined by a branch hanging down. As soon as the branch hit me in the face I thought Why is there a branch here hanging so low? Someone needs to cut it down. And then I was hit with the thought of how ironic this moment was. It's so easy to judge others for the problems that occur due to their actions. However, when I partake in the same behavior and a negative reaction occurs, I'm all too quick to blame the outside influences instead of my own actions. We all need to work on watching where we're going and thinking about both the positive and negative consequences for our actions, as well as how they impact ourselves AND others. Nature has a funny way of teaching us to look outside of ourselves, but I'm thankful for the moments that it does.

The branch!