The joy of Sunday mornings. But nothing compares to the joys of Sunday afternoons: if the weather is cooperating & one is itching to leave the house for a spell in hopes of finding something to do, scenic drives are the perfect panacea to break all the monotony which prevails throughout the week & never ceases until the weekend begins in earnest. If one has travel fever like I have always had for time immemorial, the random road trip always works its wonders in its own charismatic, spellbinding ways. One hops into a car, doesn't really know where to head off to...but voila!! when it's time to settle down, get some grub & other whatnot, reality sets in once that destination has been reached: "Well, how'd I end up here?" Then again, life is good. That is to say, if you're prepared accordingly. And one would not want to have life on the road any other way.
Only yesterday I made another odyssey out of who knows how many I have taken all by my lonesome. This time it was off to Muncie; for the moment the neighborhoods off campus were making their slow but sure flickering back to life. For those actually in the initial stages of getting settled in & all, there were of course the usual demands which life back in Muncie has asked of them: fixing up their rooms like so, building bars at such & such a spot in their respective residences, moving in furniture & other miscellaneous items...a constant routine without end it seems. In just two more days, however, everything is fair game as freshmen (among others making their official returns to their familiar confines) start stepping foot on campus to begin the move-in routines anew; the whole campus will in a brief matter of time be abuzz in energy & spring back to life that it has been doing without for a good three months.
I reminisce on those times & do I know them well; even before I first set foot on Ball State's sidewalks as a student myself, I could feel that rush of energy, that wave of momentum which hits everyone who enters Ball State or is making their re-entry back to a familiar home away from home. I didn't happen to know how momentous this vibe could be. Until I too became a student, how could I know its impact & the way it would transform my life after I shed my undergraduate trappings to begin life once more in the real world?
Now I know. This time I see through the eyes of a graduate, someone who has seen the sights of this place enough to know what joyful times I experienced here. And what joyful times they were. Soon I must make my returns to Muncie when I can, if only my schedule did not compel me to make my visits sporadically. But such is life. Life on the road, however, is a different story: It doesn't have to be lived in fits & starts if you cherish it wholeheartedly. Or so that's what I'd love to believe. Kerouac said it best when he wrote, "The road is life." When there's time to burn & the great wide open is calling out for me to take another journey, location as yet unknown, I look back on his words with an aura of nostalgia. Maybe a bit much, else I'd definitely come down with homesickness. But soon Muncie will make its presence felt, its imposing voice heard & of all places which I'd like to be this trumps all: What better time to travel back down there than now?
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