Taking Time to Smell the Roses

At the beginning of the week, I was rushing to FHE (leaving my flat far later than I should have, as usual) and found myself speed walking behind my flat mate, Michelle. She was booking it pretty fast and I didn't want to slow her down, so I just kept walking behind her. But then she did something interesting: she stopped. She stopped for a moment, grabbed the vine of a rose near her and sniffed it before quickly continuing to speed on her way.

After I caught up with her, I mentioned that I noticed that she smelled the flower. She told me that she can't help but stop every day and smell it because it smells so wonderful (and believe me, I can verify now that it does). But that really hit me. The phrase "take time to stop and smell the roses" had never been more relevant.

I started thinking about the things left in Cambridge that I still want to see and do and how I often cave myself up in the library or my room and either do work, or waste my time away. However, I decided that I want to take advantage of every opportunity I can before my time is over here to make sure I stop and enjoy it.

One of the ways that I've done that so far? Exploring the town (though I don't feel that I've scratched the surface yet) and today... PLAYING GOLF! I had to be talked into it a little, but I figured that I would take a chance and try it. I took a golf class spring term before I came out here, so at least I wasn't going in blind. 

And I had SO much fun. Golfing really is about the company. If you have a fun group of people, you're set. And the guys I went with were so great. We ended up splitting up into two teams, but I know that we all had a really good time.

Team 1-Ben, A.J., Matt, and David

Team 2: Elliott, Neal, and me

My favorite had to have been Elliott's tips. He was on a golf team for a while, so he helped Neal and I out a lot. When I took a swing and completely missed, Elliott said, "Devon, just imagine that if you hit this, there will be a really hot guy for you to make out with when you're through."

...PING! My ball went straight up through the air, right toward the green.

"Well, something must have worked..." he said. My face turned an embarrassing shade of red. But I have to give it to him, his tips are excellent. Haha.

My first hit of the day on the green

I hope this is the beginning of many more moments where I take time to stop and enjoy beautiful, sunny Cambridge :)