by Jules (’14)

One of the things I have found extremely comforting in the recent weeks– with school getting more intense as everyone hurdles towards the springboard of senior year, with all the old people I know getting more or less fatally so– is forgetting everything, skipping out on homework and/or school itself to just walk. It’s one of the most profoundly satisfying feelings in the world, to be a machine operating at full capacity, taking in air and putting land behind you and looking at nothing in particular because you’re thinking of nothing in particular. Humans are built to get everywhere on foot, and in a world that is powered by gasoline and magnets it’s really easy to forget that 150 years ago everything was within walking distance. Even more satisfying than walking by one’s self is walking with another person, someone who you can talk to (but don’t have to), someone who you can communicate with through mostly hand gestures and inarticulate noises because the only thing better than hearing your own shoes crunch leaves or slap pavement is hearing somebody else’s keeping time.