When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
— Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things
Located in Frankfort, Kentucky, the mid-point between the much larger cities of Lexington and Louisville, Buffalo Trace Distillery looks dingy in the gray light of December. This can be attributed to the black fungus clinging to the trees and buildings—a fungus almost entirely unique to distilleries. The "angel's share," bourbon that evaporates from the barrels during the aging process, serves as a food source for the fungus and allows it to thrive.
Read MoreIt's been a weird year, full of changes, travel, and bravery. Here's to a 2018 that's jam-packed with more serendipitous adventures.
Read MoreThis weekend was my fiancé's 25th birthday! Ryan is so old now! (You know I'm joking, but does anyone else feel like they were just 15, or is it only me?) Anyway, because this weekend was made for celebrating Ryan, I have composed a list of some of the things I love most about him—the things that made me certain I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.
Read MoreEach year, the end of the semester and beginning of the Christmas season brings three things: an insatiable desire to travel after barricading myself in my apartment to finish final projects, beautiful Instagram posts of festive-Europe, and Facebook advertisements for discount plane tickets. It's a perfect storm of stir-crazy and wanderlust that compels me to research trips that I know I won't have time to take or the money to afford. So instead, let's reminisce with a tale from a 2016 European adventure with my fiancé, Ryan. This is the story of the chocolate chickens that saved us
Read MoreIn the 2017 Thanksgiving season, I am thankful for many things—not the least, friends who are willing to drive almost 2,000 miles to visit me, a fiancé I can Skype every night, and family who sends me care packages. But one thing stands out in my mind this particular year: my gratitude for graduate school.
Read MoreOver the past month, my iPhone 6 has slowly been fading to an untimely death. After the iOS 10 update, the battery decided it would stay charged for shorter and shorter periods of time. Two weeks ago, my phone was on life support—it needed to be charging pretty much 24/7 to work. It frequently died at 60% or even higher. And with class and teaching schedules being the way they are, I would often spend half or more of my day without a cellphone. Then, suddenly, early last week, my phone decided to completely give up. It died and could not be resuscitated.
Read MoreWhen we picked up Luna and Argos, they were fat, squirmy little babies. They were the biggest puppies I'd ever seen, like polar bear stuffed animals come to life. They lived the first few weeks of their life in a barn surrounded by sheep, and you could smell it on them. We gave them a bath that night, and every single week that month, and with each bath, the smell of wet sheep slowly dissipated.
Read MoreBecause I'm a biology nerd who loves animals, I love going on "dates" to the zoo or aquarium. One of my all-time favorite memories of my semester abroad in Europe was a wintry visit to the Dortmund Zoo in Germany with Ryan, and that zoo earned my top spot for its South American giant otter exhibit and a free-ranging sloth. Now that Ryan and I are long distance once again, we needed to make a tradition out of our off-season zoo trip and check out the nearest one in my new locale: the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, MN.
Read MoreNever did I think teaching was as difficult as now that I can see it from the other side. So here are some facts from a student-turned-college-teaching-assistant about things you might not have considered about college professors before
Read MoreIf you know me (or if you've taken a look around this blog), you know I love Kentucky. I love fall in Kentucky and going to pumpkin patches, picking apples from the orchard, and having evening bonfires. But ever since I first spent time in the north during the fall of my senior year of high school (we went on a college visit to Vermont), I've been enamored by autumn up north and everything that comes with it: the chilly temperatures, the vivid reds, oranges, and yellows of the trees, the morning mist and gray skies. So how could I pass up an opportunity to see one of my best friends and witness the height of the fall season in a lakeside vacation town?
Read MoreThis is my fiancé's favorite story to tell anytime anyone brings up surprises: I ruined our one year anniversary with my nosiness. I'm not the type of person who you get away with surprising. I was a spy in another life and love to snoop. Furthermore, surprises mean I am not in control, and I am a self-confessed control freak. So, when Ryan made the mistake of telling me he was planning a big surprise for our anniversary last year, what did I do? I couldn't be patient and not know what to expect, so I looked at his phone and ruined the whole surprise. (Sorry, babe) In my defense, I did feel really bad about it and told him immediately afterwards.
Read MoreRecently, I've discovered a serious problem. People seem to be very confused about the type of place Kentucky is. They don't understand the people, the cities where they live, or the climate. I've noticed this problem popping up more and more since I moved up north. Kentucky often gets lumped in with all southern states, or it gets stereotyped into unidentifiable oblivion. Two examples from the past two weeks come to mind:
Read More
![Life Without a Cellphone: Thoughts on [being disconnected]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/586c18e4b3db2bcdc451ed9d/1510521699112-05SCF7HGJBRQB6Y838CK/IMG_0123+%281%29.jpg)
