Treeking
Are you allowed to come up with new words? I think it’s almost legitimate. Do you remember the Tebowing movement, the planking craze, or the milking silliness on YouTube? I’m calling it now: treeking started here. If you were wondering about the etymology of “treeking,” the words “tree” and “freaking” were combined one day in the fall at Vanderbilt to describe the state of a particular student. So treeking is exactly that: freaking out about trees.
Not because the trees here are like Whomping Willows or anything. But because the trees here on Vanderbilt’s campus are so incredibly colorful, some switch in your head is flipped and your jaw greets the sidewalk as you marvel at the brilliant hues of oranges, reds, and yellows.
It took me literally half an hour to walk from Commons to Blair because I was treeking out at every turn. The change of the leaves infected Carolyn Pippen with the treeking bug and prompted her to send out a call to all the bloggers to submit photos of our campus. I spent so much time taking pictures that I forgot to actually send them in. Well. I suppose dedicating a whole blog post to trees kind of counts. #FallatVU, check it out!
It’s almost not fair to be on Vandy’s campus during the fall season because we walk to class under a cascade of falling leaves. You know how it is proven psychologically that weather affects mood, and generally rain makes people grumpier? Well, on the rainy days in the fall here, the leaves actually reverse the effects of the crotchety weather because you are still helplessly euphoric to the raindrops glistening on the rich chromaticity of the leaves. (Disclaimer: that was not a real fact, but it is true.)
I. Love. Nature.
