Adventures at the Arboretum

Monday mornings are my absolute least favorite of any mornings. The weekend is over and I have to get up and begin the week, knowing there are five long days of class ahead of me. At 9am every Monday I usually roll out of bed and drag myself on a 20-minute walk to English class. But one day, we went on an adventure to the Penn State Arboretum instead.

I woke up and stumbled down Bigler road in the soggy grass, wet from morning dew. I had never been to the gardens before, so I had no idea what to expect, but as soon as I began to see the flowers I knew this Monday would be better than most. Typically, I am not the outdoorsy type. I don’t like grass or dirt or bugs or outdoor smells at all. Usually flowers aren’t even appealing to me. But contrary to my expectations, I was breath taken from the moment I arrived at this Arboretum.

The cool, fresh morning air and bright sunshine set an optimistic mood right from the start. As I began my walk through the arboretum, I ventured off in a different direction than my fellow classmates. I went straight for the giant sunflowers. They reminded me so much of Halloween at home. Every year my parents, brother and I would go to a farm about 25 minutes away from my house and we would pick our pumpkins to carve. The farm has corn mazes, hayrides, horses and a giant sunflower garden. I remember when I was little, about 7 or 8 years old the sunflowers looked like they were 20 feet tall. Now, seeing the same type of sunflowers at the Penn State Arboretum, I noticed that they were only about 6 feet tall, reaching barely above my head. It was incredible to look at the sunflowers, arched into the blue, cloudy fall morning sky and have such a vivid, warm childhood memory.

As I continued my walk around the arboretum, I was very relaxed and felt alone with my thoughts as I traveled through my brightly colored surroundings. Purple, white, yellow, pink, orange and red, the flicks of color switched every 20 or so feet as I walked. Again, this reminded me of home. I have a large two-acre yard that my family always hand gardens. We make several trips a year to Waterloo Gardens down the road and select which types of flowers and colors we want to surround our home. I recognized some of the flowers from my planting experience at home.

A third spot at the arboretum that really struck me were the two red lawn chairs sitting just off of the pathway. They, too, reminded me of home. I have two similar lawn chairs in my backyard, but they are white. It is very enjoyable to sit out in the lawn, look at the garden and occasionally read a book. I imagine it would be very nice to do so at the Penn State Arboretum as well.
Overall, I thought the garden was very beautiful and it was a great start to my Monday morning. I definitely preferred venturing through the garden to sitting in a stuffy classroom! I hope other students have the experience of going to visit the garden, I’m glad I did.