You’d be surprised: The simple joy of seeing an elephant.

Seeing an elephant in the wild would be one thing.

Unfortunately, I do not have the funds to travel to Africa. And you can blame Justin Bieber for that, because he has yet to fall in love with me and share his millions.

Today I was (yet again) avoiding my homework, scrolling through my pictures, when I came across this gem:

Photo credit: Julia Feeser

It’s a picture I took at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. When I took this picture, it had been years since I had seen an elephant (not counting the rather sad-looking ones I have seen at the circus), and I had forgotten how remarkable this animal actually is. As I watched it play with what appeared to be a discarded Christmas tree, using its nimble trunk to draw it up and away from the ground, I was filled with simple joy.

Photo credit: Julia Feeser

I think simple joy is the kind of joy that is not bubbly, not loud, and not the kind that comes from running through a field of wild flowers wearing a white dress. Simple joy is the joy that is suddenly and quietly there, without fanfare and without the fear that it may suddenly disappear, for the person experiencing simple joy knows that the moment will not last but finds peace in its temporary presence.

Photo credit: Julia Feeser

Forgetting the beauty of an elephant and experiencing it again: simple joy.

You’d be surprised…how little food a college student can (sort of) survive on.

My mother (or anybody who cares about my well-being for that matter) should not read this post. 

As a college student in the midst of finals, it is a really, really, really  huge freaking chore to leave my room. Here in this room I have access to both the manure heap that is my homework and my lovely bed to snuggle down in and cry myself to sleep because I am being forced to write a ten page paper about how Muslims use (or don’t use) technology. Leaving my room means losing access to these.

However, locking myself in my dorm room is also equivalent to barricading oneself in a cave for the winter: eventually you will run out of food and die a slow, painful death.

I try to keep my refrigerator and cupboards fairly well stocked. However, since the whole becoming a hermit thing happened and I decided that if I was going to spend money on anything it would be Starbucks and not groceries, my diet has become, shall we say, primitive.

This is what I have been surviving on for the past three weeks:

• Whole wheat pita pockets that I scrounged from the public refrigerator downstairs.
• Top Ramen that one of the girls in my hall gave me out of sympathy.
• Non-fat granola. Non-fat….granola.
• Quesadillas that I heated up in the microwave. Meaning the cheese gets all crispy (and not in a good way) and makes the tortillas rock hard. Then of course there’s the other issue when I try to avoid the crispiness and instead I end up with a soggy circle of cheap tortilla.
• One Werther’s candy.
• Water.

Although, now that I’m no longer consuming real food, the fact that I have been to the gym twice in two weeks doesn’t seem like such a big deal.

You’d be surprised…about all the things I’ve done instead of my homework.

First of all, it is just wrong that I have been relegated to doing my homework on a Saturday night. It says something about both my current social life and the disposition of my professors.

Add “making a list” to the list of things I have done besides my homework.

1. Checked Facebook. Tried to figure out how to delete those “friends” that I never, ever talk to. Couldn’t figure it out because of complicated new feature, Timeline. Became frustrated.
2. Bought “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye on iTunes. Listened to it. Liked it.
3. Plucked eyebrows. Felt a little more groomed.
4. Watched parody of “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction. Laughed, but felt slightly upset because I secretly like One Direction.
5. Turned off bedroom light to save energy.
6. Changed desktop background to lovely picture of magnolias. Congratulated self on taking such a good picture.
7. Napped.
8. Ate yogurt with Oreo bits.
9. Stared at ticket stub for The Fray concert.
10. Drew heart on wrist with Sharpie.

That awesome picture I took. Hello, desktop background.

You’d be surprised…how awesome a fruit salad tutorial can be.

The first time I watched this video, I died. 

No, that would be silly. I didn’t really die. But I was on the verge of losing my breath from laughing so hard. And I have pretty high standards about what I personally deem LOL-able on YouTube (yes, I did just use the term “LOL-able.” My college degree is really paying off).

It’s YUMMA!

(Also, at the risk of potentially being sued or something of the like, I do not own this video)