It felt as if January dragged on forever, finally coming to a close after a long and strenuous expanse of busy weeks. Then, we moved into February with eagerness to begin a new month and start fresh in the wake of the prior 31 days that had felt like forever. Then, February flew by. And I don't think that it had much to do with the fact that February was a mere three days shorter than its predecessor this year.
February was an exceptionally ordinary month for me, but only according to my new and updated definition of normal. Normal now has a very different meaning than it did six months ago. Everything is so different but it all feels so ordinary now. This is pretty bizarre for someone who doesn't do super well with big changes.
Devyn under the magnolia tree at Forsyth park.
Normal used to mean waking up and feeling well rested. Making breakfast, like, really cooking, and getting in my car and singing my heart out on the way to school. Normal used to mean eating lunch with my friends and sometimes heading in a little early from lunch to chat with my fifth-hour teacher before class started. Normal used to mean trying to leave my last period early to avoid the flood of cars in the parking lot, but always getting stuck anyway because I had to wait for my little brother to get out of class. Normal used to mean stopping at the coop and grabbing some food from the hot bar and a pumpkin cookie before heading to the night shift at work. Normal used to mean talking to my mom when I got home from work while she was cooking dinner, and normal used to mean being able to get away with not doing homework outside of class and having some free time before bed to watch a movie or even get to bed at a decent hour.
Now, normal has a completely different meaning. Normal now means tee shirts in the winter. This month, the city had an average high of 72 degrees. It did end up getting to 86 degrees towards the end of the month which was certainly not something I would have expected had I still been used to Madison weather. However, 72 felt quite nice and I didn't think much about it until I was on the phone with my family comparing my 72 to their 32. Thinking about it now, I wonder how I didn't go crazy in Madison over the course of my first 18.5 years. The warmth here has allowed me to create new normals, such as walking to Forsyth park on Sundays with my roommates to hang out in the hammock, do amateur yoga on our blankets, or shoot impromptu portraits with the blooming magnolia trees. Our walks to the park also allow us to get our weekly dose of cute dogs. (Seriously, so many!!! Savannah is so dog-friendly!)
Normal also now means caffeine for breakfast. A lot of caffeine. Living with three other (very enthusiastic) girls being the only one who has to wake up at approximately 6 am four days a week can be a challenge. This is where I become very thankful for my good friend the iced vanilla almond milk latte. (Iced soy chai is also a close friend of mine.) Getting out of bed in the morning after being kept awake far after my bedtime, (whether it be due to philosophical conversations or the simple sounds of living such as closing drawers or washing dishes) can be quite a challenge and I regret to inform you that it sometimes does not happen on time. Therefore, my breakfast becomes a coffee and a Cool Mint Chocolate Clif Bar (which also contains about as much caffeine as a half drank cup of coffee would). Before you go all you-need-a-balanced-breakfast-to-focus-in-class on me, please note that my grades are good, I am happy and healthy, and that this is all part of me transitioning into the independent/learning how to be an adult stage of my life. (In other words, I probably will be stubborn and not listen to you if you tell me to eat better breakfasts. Let me make these amateur adulthood mistakes on my own. I'll figure it out.)
Normal now means waiting for the bus for so long that I just decide it'd be quicker to walk. I really do enjoy the walk back from Arnold hall to my dorm; it takes me past several of my favorite coffee shops and through my favorite park. I always see plenty of happy people walking their dogs and the same group of moms participating in a cardio group while all their toddlers watch them from the comfort of their strollers. I always enjoy the fresh air and breeze, and I always get mildly grossed out by the sweat that accumulates in my tee shirts below the straps of my backpack. And I sometimes (wish I could say always on this one) even stop to grab a vegan donut from Henny Penny. My mind is always cleared by the nearly two-mile walk after class. Speaking of walking...
Normal is walking! Not to infer that I sat around all day for my first 18 years, but in Madison I lived in a suburb where the nearest establishment was a 20 minute walk from my house and it happened to be somewhere that I really didn't ever have the desire to go: a bar and grill at our neighborhood's golf course clubhouse. Not to mention that back at home, I had a car. I didn't have to walk anywhere, and quite frankly, I never wanted to. Coming to Savannah where everything was so close and not having any means of transportation but the crowded buses or my own two feet should have been a huge and difficult adjustment, but it just wasn't. I find myself going on walks purely for enjoyment now even if I don't have somewhere to be or something to do. It's so nice and refreshing to be outside in such a beautiful place.
Finally, normal is being happy. I don't want to make it sound like I was never happy at home, or that I'm always happy here, because neither of those assertions would be true. The change is that my happiness here is more spontaneous. I don't have to do things to try to be happy. I am just happy because of the things that I do. I think that is a really fulfilling way to live. I worry less about maintaining a balance because I enjoy the things that I want to do as well as the things that I have to do. I spend more time enjoying what I'm doing because I'm doing more of what I enjoy. I have so much more time that is dictated by me rather than by a law saying that I have to go to school for 7.5 hours a day. And that is so refreshing. It is new, but it feels normal. And I guess that is all I can ask for.