The Walk from Uni to Kenney

The walk from Uni to Kenney every day could actually be a pretty interesting topic if you analyzed all the small things you saw over the course of a year. Maybe you find a peculiar acorn, leaf, or rock. Maybe you overhear an interesting conversation as you walk through DCL. Maybe you forget your prox one day and have to find someone to walk with. Maybe you’re the only one on the sidewalk or maybe there are no cars passing by. Regardless of what changes, the walk is almost never the same because of even the slightest changes. 

    Whenever I walk to Kenney, I usually walk through DCL, whether it be cold outside or I just don’t want the wind or sun in my face. I’ve noticed that I subconsciously look at all the laptop screens every time I walk over the lower level of DCL with all the tables and seats which people are usually occupying. I get a little kick out of seeing people watching a video that I’ve already watched and imagining their reactions. There are also times when I look and I see someone watching or playing something I’ve never seen before and it interests me enough to the point where I want to look it up later, even though I usually forget. Over a year, it’s actually quite insane how many different things I can see just by taking 5 seconds to look down every time I walk through DCL. 

    However, when I’m walking outside, I often look out for exotic cars or people walking by. When I look at the people passing by, I often think that this is probably the last time I’m ever going to see them again, but that they each have their own story. Who knows if they are a serial killer, if they’re a genius, if they’re going to be homeless in a year, there’s no way for me to know from walking by them for a fraction of a second. But the fact that so many different people can be living their own lives in one place, in one moment, and not overlap or interfere with everyone is pretty intriguing to me. Watching all these people walk by also makes me wonder about myself, what do I look like for these people? What do they think of me? 

I could be putting too much thought into simple and meaningless things, but the seemingly simple walk from Uni to Kenney gives me enough free time to think to myself and come up with these types of observations and thoughts. This is because when I’m walking to Kenney, that’s my only goal, to walk to Kenney. My mind doesn’t have to focus on solving problems in or outside of school, but my eyes still have to collect information because I’d rather not walk into the middle of the street and get run over for trying to walk with my eyes closed. Therefore, the only thing that my mind absolutely has to focus on is reacting to the environment that surrounds me, as it’s pretty easy to walk without thinking about it. When my entire focus is on noticing the world around me, I begin to realize what remains similar between each day while also contrasting the smallest little shifts. No two experiences are ever exactly the same, which is part of the beauty of life for me, even for small things like the walk between Uni and Kenney.