I open my planner and look at the day: Four classes, two meetings, a conference with my advisor, reading five chapters in a novel and writing a paper are all on my agenda today. If I have time, I’ll have lunch with Melissa and Molly and work-out, but only if I have a first draft done or the five chapters read.

A few short months ago, this was my life. Every hour of the day was planned, and I remember feeling like I was constantly pulling myself out of quicksand. I would turn in one paper, and have another paper and a project to finish before the week’s end. As soon as I thought I was out of the hole, I was sinking once again into stress and frustration. I always knew I would finish everything, and in a way, I loved my crazy, hectic life. “I’m bored” was a phrase that almost never crossed my lips; there was never time for me to say it, and I always felt like I was accomplishing something.

Ultimately, this semester has turned my life upside down in terms of planning. I can’t even remember the last time I looked in my planner, and “stress” is not in my vocabulary. Somehow, I find plenty of time to do my assigned reading and homework, as well as read and write for pleasure, travel, go out, etc. From day to day, I don’t live by any kind of structure. Class is usually around the same time, but other than that, plans are made and changed about as often as college students check Facebook.

This last weekend was the first time I truly realized how spontaneously I am living. ACM gives us several three day weekends to travel, and last weekend was one of these. On Thursday, Kelli, our friend Carmen and I finally picked a destination: Cinque Terre. We arrived at the train station at 7 a.m. Friday morning with our backpacks, no tickets, no hotel reservations and hunger for adventure. Without a hitch, we booked tickets, found our train and left Florence before 8 a.m. Girlish squeals, clapping and laughter filled our tiny train compartment, as we relished in our skills in the station and also our luck. We still had a few obstacles ahead, however. We had to change trains extremely quickly, arrive at the final of the five towns which comprise Cinque Terre and find a hotel.

Everything worked out perfectly. We arrived at our final destination, Monterosso, and somehow found a hotel in the first twenty minutes. Since tourist season doesn’t begin for over another month, most hotels in these towns are closed, but we found a fairly economical place to stay right on the beach. After we dropped our bags at the hotel, we ran straight out to the beach. Kelli and Carmen have both seen the sea before, but this was my first time. I felt like a child taking my first steps as they smiled and watched me dip my toes into the water. I was so excited, and I will never forget the way I felt that morning: the greatest wave of calm and contentedness rushed over my body, like the waves over my feet, and for a moment, it really seemed like the world stopped spinning.

The rest of the weekend was spent hiking through the mountains, investigating all the small towns and lying on the beach. We met a lot of other travelers on the hike and around the towns, and it was great to exchange information and meet people from other areas of the U.S and the world. Spontaneity gave me the greatest weekend of my life thus far, and while there is definitely a time and place for “flying by the seat of one’s pants,” I think I’ll bring this new-found adventurous nature home with me in May.

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