It was sixty degrees outside today.

Sixty. Degrees. In February. What.

That being said, I tried to be outside for as much as possible. I felt sad that I had to spend 4 of those hours of glorious inside, making sandwiches for people, but alas. It was great while it lasted.

One thing I noticed is that the insane warmth of today brought with it a bustling that’s been absent on campus for some time now… I know I referenced a sermon a while back about having good “internal” weather all year long, but it’s also really hard to escape the fact that weather does heavily impact my mood, my outlook, my habits. My roommate also announced in our group chat today that she was in such a good mood because of the weather. It’s too darn nice outside to be in a bad mood, you know?

Just hours ago I was standing over a sink full of dishes. Stuck-In-the-Remnants-of-Winter-Blues Stephanie would have been grumbly, impatient for her shift to end, and thinking about how she never wanted to touch another dish again.

Today seemed different. I regularly do try to use the time at my wage job doing menial tasks to let my mind wander because, as Chris Bailey points out in his book The Productivity Project, wandering is the default mode of the brain.

My mind went to the positivity, the longing, the possibilities. My mind went to this summer, hopes for Ireland, the work I hope to do, traveling, learning, and just an overall desire to get excited for something. To start something new. To get out and do and see rather than be glued to a screen for 54% of the day.

…Which also spurred my decision to get rid of a lot of my social media [barring this blog] for a bit. Call it a Lenten discipline or just a life re-evaluation– there’s definitely just other things I would like to be doing rather than mindlessly scrolling through Facebook and Instagram on a pointless journey from A to B then back to A that just has the tendency to leave me anxious and unfulfilled.

So.

That being said, find me here, typing furiously away on my mechanical keyboard soaking up the last real day of my hand-held media frolicking, also thinking about the gravity of the events that have transpired in the last 48 hours. Posts to come, I tell you what. But until then… anyone else get super elated with the warm weather?

xx