I will never get back the hours I spent during the second semester of my senior year watching college vlog after college vlog. I was confused, amazed and excited about how different a world it seemed to be around other people all of the time.
As an only child living with a single mom, this concept was completely foreign to me. Prominent BU vloggers such as Gretchen Geraghty told me how important it was to have friends to sit with at all meals and to walk with at all times. College seemed like it was always go, go, go. There never seemed to be time for people to take simply for themselves.
As I packed up my room at home, I felt weird. Would this be the last place that I could ever experience true solace? At home, it was easy to make time for myself. That seems to go without saying. I had my room to be undisturbed, or my car to drive around listening to music with the breeze in my hair. But what would I have at school?
During my first semester at BU, I lived in East Campus, and I had classes in West Campus every single day of the week. Some of those were 8 am’s. To most people, this sounds like absolute torture. It did to me as well once I fully realized what I had gotten myself into, but after I got into the swing of the semester, I was pleasantly surprised.
Walking around campus by myself for those long distances—whether in the morning going to class, the afternoon heading back to my dorm, or at night coming back from a club meeting—engendered some of my most meditative moments where I felt truly content. It allowed me to “sit with myself” without actually having to force myself to sit still; even with the help of meditation apps, I always feel I am too restless to actually sit still for long enough to reap the benefits.
With a two-mile-long campus, walking has become my meditation. It’s great because no one questions you; you’re walking down the street, just like them. But it’s a great time to focus on your breathing, to notice the details of your surroundings, or to simply get lost in the music you’re listening to.
On top of being a great way to clear your head or learn to love your campus, walking has many health benefits. Getting upwards of ten thousand steps a day, I have definitely felt a spike in my energy levels that I would not experience if I took public transit everywhere.
All in all, I am grateful to go to such a uniquely laid out school. It has allowed me to have specific, carved-out times of the day for myself without the guilt of losing productivity. And without a school that is shaped like a line, who knows, I may have found myself walking in circles.
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