Ocean Consistency - Lion's Bridge Nature Reflection (Adam Stillabower)

     To be completely honest, the day that we had class at the Nolan Trail and Lions Bridge, I had been feeling very overwhelmed with what life was throwing at me. There was, at that point in time, so much going on that I just felt drained driving on Museum Parkway to meet with the rest of the class. I was tired after countless hours of studying, piles of coursework, and an extensive amount of military (ROTC) training from the past few weeks. Walking up to meet with Dr. Redick, I was most certainly distracted, my mind constantly working through the different activities of the day, still trying to think about the tasks that were still left to do after that class had finished. It was not until I walked down the stairs and looked out to the river that was I finally able to remove myself from my own head, stressors, and experience the moment that we were all in at the time. Gazing across the water towards the river and not being able to see the other side really stuck out to me. The vastness of it all. The constant moving of the waves. The periodic seagull chirps. All at once it just hit me. It was all consistent. No matter what was going on, the waves kept crashing, it remained vast and expansive, and there was still an influx of the birds. This made me realize that, yes, our lives can get busy with various activities and responsibilities, but we remain. The bridge, statues, and structures were a testament to perseverance. We can work through everything and that there is another side to the heartache, struggle, and stress that comes in our lives. Staring out at the horizon over the water made me realize that there was a significant amount more to this life and to every experience than what pulls us down. Returning to nature, viewing the raw unyielding force that was the river helped me see past my immediate surrounding and look forward to a better future.