First, you need to know that I have homework. Eighteen credits worth of procrastinated books to read and projects to complete. I also have work tonight, a six to ten shift that eats into my studying and sleeping time. I have dirty dishes and laundry to do. I also should probably go for a run. To summarize, I am a normal, ridiculously busy college student.
But my friend asked yesterday if I wanted to wake up and go hiking in the Red River Gorge. I pushed aside my responsibilities for once and just did what I wanted.
We started hiking Auxier Ridge Trail sometime around 6:30 a.m. She is a photographer and I am a writer, so frequent stops were made to document the frost on the logs and the shadows of boulders when the sun just began to peak over.
I watched the sun rise with my back against a slab of crumbling sandstone. It was cold. We passed articles of clothing back and forth; I breathed into my stumbling fingers. But the world was asleep, and I got to witness the birds whose wings I could hear flap from the cliff edge. I watched the sunlight fall on the boot prints left in the sand.
Today had the best morning.