The Break in the Weather

This past weekend my own fall sports experience at Bethel College came to an end. We had our last meet of the season, the KCAC championship meet at Kansas Wesleyan. It was terrific weather, and both the men’s and women’s teams performed admirably. We exceeded all pre-season predictions to finish fifth for each team. The last meet saw some of the best performances of the season as we finished on a strong note. Now we turn the page on another part of life, looking forward to the trailing end of the semester and the upcoming class projects and finals that are increasingly staring us down. We have two and a half weeks of solid work ahead of us before we get our last pre-Finals respite, Thanksgiving Break. The trees are turning, and the Bethel campus looks like something out of Middle Earth. We have a green space where the three residences form a triangle, and it is filled with trees that have turned all sorts of autumn shades over these last few weeks. It’s a nice scene to chance upon when you’re walking back from a difficult class and want to clear your mind. There’s a picnic table that acts like a siren call to those academically-wearied students that wonder by, urging someone to lie upon its smooth surface. The nice weather of late hasn’t done any favors in helping us students resist this temptation. I find myself on occasion outside playing guitar without a clear idea of how I got there. This is the campus, serene and experiencing what could be called the calm before the storm. There is this one breath of fresh air before conditioning for the track season begins for me, and before finals approach too closely. There is a fall drama left to see, and friends to play music with before the realities of college classes catch up with us all. Until then, Ben Histand