oh, now you tell me.

"Are we really still in Pennsylvania?" I kept asking. "This place has been here for the past four years?" I found it hard to believe. Wissahickon holds the kind of beauty that in my mind is reserved for mountains of Colorado or West Virginia. Or, at the very least, rural-rural PA. But not Philly. Not Germantown. Not 20 minutes away from the place I've been living for the past four years of my life. For me, Bryn Mawr has never been a place to be connected to nature, to escape from the developed world. I suppose I've tried a couple times - sitting quietly at the labyrinth and lookin at the sunset, pretending the grass around me wasn't perfectly groomed and ignoring Rhoads and the vast athetic fields stretched out before me. The back porch of Batten offers a beautiful view into the woods, but just beyond that is a big road and it's hard to block out the noises of cars zooming past. The stars are somewhat visible at night, but not to a large degree, what with all the light pollution from the city and suburbs. I've resigned myself to a life without much connection to nature whenever I'm at school.

And while access might be a bit limiting, Wissahickon has been there this whole time! It's kind of like living in a house without a stove for years and eating only cold and microwaved food, and then, when you're about to move out, discovering that there was actually a stove where you thought there was only a counter (a stove disguised as a counter? I don't know). But it's ok, because it is becoming more and more likely that I'll be in Philly next year, and this knewfound pocket of beauty makes that decision even sweeter!