"About this time of year..."

About this time every year, my old cross country team returns to school to begin training camp. I remember this time last year in particular, since it was the first in four years that I wasn't joining them. This year's camp is the second I won't be attending, and isn't nearly as hard as the first. In some respects this also proved true of the training camps themselves: the first was the most difficult, and subsequent ones proved more bearable. I'm not sure what all this means except a.) I'm getting old(er), and b.) as much as I miss the experience, I'm finding similar joys in other ways now.

If the weather around here is any measure, the conditions for this training camp thus far have proved excellent. Clear skies, low humidity, and unseasonably cool temperatures all make for a potentially-enjoyable experience, running or otherwise. It certainly made this morning's long effort on the roads a pleasant time for me. Indeed, I smiled at the thought of old friends racing each other in a 5-kilometer time-trial, perhaps at the same moment as I climbed the first of a long series of hills under a fresh, almost-washed looking sky. (As it turns out, the time-trial is tomorrow, not today).

In any case, my old college is a treat to meander through on foot in this sort of weather, at this time of year. The oak trees (which by the way, are EVERYWHERE up there) that give me so many allergy attacks in Spring are thankfully less active now. With a great variety of other trees (which the first-year biology/pre-med students will be able to identify in a few months), the campus has large swaths of shade. Sometimes the smokers gather there to discuss one thing or another, and other times one finds the lone freshman looking about to gather his or her bearings. At night, one may occasionally find a drunk using the tree as a friend to lean on, but usually only in mild weather.

I still don't know what it is, but something about walking around campus this time of year always seemed to fill me with a sense of excitement. Fall in general has always been that way for me, but the feeling seemed heightened once I went to college. One might think that with Autumn everything is dying or tending toward winter's chill, but for whatever reason it hasn't and doesn't feel that way to me; in truth, it almost feels as though a new life is just beginning.

In any case, sunset is also a beautiful occurrence to observe at my old college, because of the way light plays through the branches of the trees, or the tops of campus buildings. The clouds from Limerick Nuclear Power Plant may also contribute to this effect. But on the whole, the effect can be most stimulating. In winter, the sun shines through the stain-glass windows of the chapel building; I remember watching it once instead of doing physics homework.

I suppose I miss life at the old Uni sometimes, but I feel lucky to have so many friends and pleasant memories from it. And the longer I spend away from the place, the more I can smile at all the things that went both right and wrong, or indeed just happened without any planning. I hope my old friends are doing well, and finding the road ahead interesting.

Happy Tuesday, friends :)