Guest Post: My Backyard

My backyard is a place I haven’t set foot in for months and months, simply because I never have a reason to go there. After all, homework rarely requires grass or trees or dirt. I guess that says something pretty sad about me as a person and the way I’m currently living my life. That said, my backyard is one of my favorite places in the house.

The last memory I have of spending time in my backyard was after exams, either last year or freshman year. I brought my laptop outside (because even when relaxing in my backyard, I can’t live without technology…) along with a nice soda (because even when enjoying the great outdoors, I need sugar…) and my iPhone (see above comment about technology). I laid out on the grass with a towel and stayed there, but really for no more than half an hour because the glare of the sunlight was too great for me to properly enjoy the TV show I was watching on Hulu.

As you can see from the previous paragraph, when I say I love my backyard, it’s not the actual grass/pond/trees that I’m talking about. What I’m really a fan of is the sunroom. When we first moved into this house, my parents decided that we were going to thoroughly enjoy the benefits of owning a sunroom. They immediately bought a hammock (that fails) and a sunroom couch thing that is comfortable, convenient, and aesthetically pleasing. There is really nothing better than coming home on the Friday before a long weekend and lying on that couch with some form of beverage containing sugar. I plan on spending the rest of my life in an urban setting of some sort, but even I can appreciate the beauty of fall colors accentuated by a perfect blue sky, like the weather we had today!. It might be even better in the spring, when the weather is just warm enough to return to my shorts and I get to witness the first signs of the new greenery. Nature and I usually don’t get along – running water and air conditioning are necessities of life – but the sunroom provides a good compromise.

For someone who’s life is rather hectic and who rarely stops to smell the flowers, the few moments I spend in that sunroom are absolutely crucial to my mental sanity. It reminds me that there is stuff outside of the endless cycle of homework and school that I’m currently caught in. This past week has been especially crazy for me (tests, tests, tests), but tomorrow, I might just chill on that aesthetically pleasing couch for an hour with a hot chocolate in hand.

-E