LAUREN MORTON-FARMER
London Columnist
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IP students during a night out in Paris(Anela Holck/Ass.t Photo Editor)
It’s Monday, and as I sit here with my thoughts to myself for the first time today, I realize something: I’m in London. Not just a layover, not just a visit, but I am actually living in London with some of the best friends I’ll probably ever have. And now it truly occurs to me just how blessed we all are to be here at this time in our lives.
Last weekend, 14 of us met up in Paris for a big French adventure. Along the way, we were lost, confused and scared mindless by the thought of staying in a seedier neighborhood than we anticipated. But all it took was one step back to examine our lives from another point (and one step into a bakery for some scrumptious pastry) and we could exhale. We were in Paris, and for three days, the city was ours for the taking.
There was nothing that could touch us. We walked through the D’Orsay, strolled along the Champs-Elysees and celebrated a friend’s birthday as the Eiffel Tower sparkled above us. What could we ever complain about? True, the early semester exams looming in our future weren’t too appealing, and any thought of catching up with our reading on the EuroStar back to Waterloo Station was carefully avoided, but none of that seemed to matter. I played a very important lesson back in my mind as I took in this spectacular city.
Our religion professor, Dr. Jerry Rushford, taught us a lesson the week before our grand excursion that I can only hope will follow us past Pepperdine and keep us in check as we move through life.
He taught us to wake up each morning and remember, “This is the day the Lord has made.”
He taught us to stop worrying about what we didn’t do yesterday, what we must do tomorrow and to live in the glorious present. No day like today will ever come again, and so we shouldn’t waste even a second. Those words in class were what I needed to hear, when I needed to hear it.
Meanwhile, back at the Eiffel Tower, I took a minute to step back and watch as my friends attempted piggyback rides for pictures, watched them fall down laughing at goodness knows what, and then toasted to the next time we will all meet at that magnificent tower. Every minute of the night counted, and not a second was wasted in worries about what could have or might be.
All that mattered was that gorgeous, glittering night where, for once, we weren’t stereotypical “loud Americans,” but rather a group of friends making everyone around us smile at our silliness.
Call it luck, fate or just plain incredible that we would find ourselves in Europe at this point in our lives, but we’re here. We will never get these days back, and to live even one day in London would be enough for me.
But if I tangle myself up again in the past or reach too far for the future, as I inevitably will, I can always stop and remember one thing: We’ll always have Paris.
10-06-2005
