i take a lot of pictures. not just on this trip, my dwindling phone storage and grainy google photos albums dating back to 2013 can attest.
i’ve thought a lot about time since we left campus in mid-june. the time it takes to complete each twenty-mile leg joel carefully calculates, the time we’ll arrive in each new city and whether that’s early enough to cook dinner together as a team. the time it takes seven sleepyheads to roll-up-sleeping-bags-eat-change-pack-car-get-on-the-road each morning. rotations per minute and miles per hour and only 24 hours in a day and how has it been almost a month on the road already?
time flies when you’re having fun (and i think it also flies regardless).
some part of me panics at the thought of missing moments, the thought of thinking back to spokes in five or ten or twenty years and only remembering that it was fun and tiring and sometimes stressful but a “super cool” experience nonetheless.
i hope i remember today when sophia found a giant dandelion and almost ate all of the fluff, when vincent showcased his pro(fficient/fessional) ice skating abilities at the local rink, when joel and sophia foam rolled with such vigor that i almost cried laughing, when katherine talked to me about feminism and ancient art over watered-down lattes and used books. when i found a fantastic nutella swirl muffin at a little coffee shop in downtown steamboat springs. when the wells fargo employee i crossed paths with this morning was also named aja and was also named after a steely dan album from the 70s.
i’m afraid of losing these moments, getting so lost in the frantic shuffle of… everything… that i take for granted these 70 short days and 3500 *short* miles. part of why i love working with young kids is because they force you to slow down, to hold moments a little bit closer and question the (seemingly-innate-at-this-point) desire to produce stress from thin air. they force you to pace yourself, to look for roly polies in the dirt after teacher joel’s rocket lesson because why not?
it’s really difficult to maintain sight of this. when it’s past midnight and we have a 5:45am alarm set and it's simply impractical. when we have miles to cover and places to be. when the only thoughts in my mind on that steep steep MOUNTAIN are one two three four…twenty *downshift* one two three four…twenty *downshift*...*downshift…*downshift*... *barely survive* ...
i try not to forget to pace myself, breathe, soak in the view and (at times excessive) sunlight.
i try not to forget to stop and take pictures.
here are a few from today :)
aja
the dandelion to beat all dandelions
intimidating foam roll joel
bookstore coffeeshop = happy
teacher joel in his element
we may not be made for water, but we sure are made for ice!
