Experiencing Life.

"I mean that they should not play life, or study it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end". I'm not a huge Thoreau fan to be honest with you. I find his book, Walden to be a tad dry. Possibly also a tad, dare I say, boring? However, I feel like there is always SOMETHING a person can pick out of even their least favorite of books which appeals to them. For me? I have been, and always will be a quote girl.

I love a good quote more than anything else in this entire world (Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I REALLY love quotes). It seems like no matter what you're going through in life, finding the perfect quote to explain your situation can somehow make things a tad better.

After reading Walden, I was able to find a couple quotes which really stuck out to me, but for now we'll just stick with the one above.  The part of this specific line which I enjoyed the most was the ending portion, "...earnestly live if from beginning to end". That may be one of the most beautiful lines I have ever heard. I have to reiterate, I really do think Thoreau was a tad crazy for sending himself into "isolation" for so long, however some of the ideas that he left Walden Pond with are extremely inspiring.

I feel like I can relate to Thoreau on the smallest level here. It took him going out into the woods, alone, for him to be reminded of this idea that we can't simply just study life, or learn about life, or watch others live their lives. We have to earnestly LIVE our lives. From beginning to end. Before going out into the woods for out Nature experiment in class, I had gotten so caught up in the daily stresses of life without even realizing it. I have 2 jobs, while also being a full time student. I love being busy, but I don't think I was really loving living my life. Much like Thoreau, it took going into the woods, by myself to remind me to slow down. I needed to stop living my life through text books, cell phones, computers, and work.

Truly living is doing things like throwing yourself out in the middle of nature; giving yourself a chance to EXPERIENCE the world around you rather than just talking about it in a classroom. At times, it can be hard to remember that "the way" we live really does impact how we function as people, and I feel like if we all could realize this, there would be much happier people in the world.