Hello, friends. I am back again to take some time out of the busy days to relax by storytelling for you all. Today, we will tackle some pictures I have taken on campus across the roughly four months that I have been here, as well as some other Columbus spots.
We will go in chronological order, as that makes the most sense (and it keeps me from jumbling my timeline any more than it already is).
First, we have one of my favorite places to be on campus: Mirror Lake. Mirror Lake is a little pond on south campus of Ohio State University that is notoriously known for being a beautiful spot on campus grounds. It is also had a tradition of people jumping into the pond during Michigan week, but that has since subsided due to an accidental tragedy involving a student.
I visit Mirror Lake whenever I can and whenever it is not too cold to be sitting outside for longer periods of time. The atmosphere is so peaceful- it truly makes you forget that you have four assignments due in the next two days. I love to go down there and relax while I can.
Sometimes, it even gives me inspiration for poetry. I will put in one poem I wrote while at Mirror Lake when it was warmer outside:
lac miroir most inviting hues of green, with everlasting flora to please the eye for decades. with the single fountain that sings the perfect notes as water droplets fall back into its body, and the blooming lavender stalks who decorate the imperfect edges. pour le beauté de lac miroir. - t.p.m.
Next, I bring you to a wonderful outside exhibition of social justice art I walked by earlier this year. I was walking to the campus Target with my roommate, Hannah, when we passed this captivating collection.
I have always been intrigued by social justice art, and I think it is very powerful. As a writer, I’m all about meaning, and social justice art is definitely surrounded by tons of it. These, specifically, as you can see, have a central focus of racial tensions that have been a bit high-strung in America recently. Each panel highlights, in some way, that we should all have love for each other, no matter how different we may be, and that we should speak out against injustice. This collection certainly impacted me.
After this, I will bring you to one of my favorite spots in Columbus. One of my other best friends, Meredith, brought me here for the first time, and I have been in love with it ever since. It is the Scioto Mile and Genoa Park. I had heard of the Scioto Mile before, but had no clue what it was before exploring it with Meredith. I also did not know Genoa Park existed until Meredith brought me there with Hannah on a separate night.
The landscape is just beautiful. Being here makes the city feel alive. It was calming to be here when the weather was just right, and I could lay down a blanket and write for hours. Usually, Meredith, Hannah and I would come here to have a meal and talk about our lives, but I could definitely see myself writing in multiple different spots here, having a picnic, or taking time out of my day to refresh with even a few minutes at these places.
The picture on the right shows the built-in steps that are in front of COSI that you can sit on to look at downtown Columbus. They are staggered and are a wonderful place to take everything in. I would have to say that this is one of the best pictures I took that night. I liked it so much that it is now my laptop background, and I like to draw attention to the couple that is sitting on the stairs just to the bottom left quadrant of the picture. I think they would enjoy having this picture.
The next destination is a beautiful garden that my hometown best friend, Cc, suggested we go to. We went with Hannah and Meredith as a bigger group of 4, and it was a very joyous experience. It is called the Inniswood Metro Gardens, located on the outer ring of Columbus. Cc would gush to me about the elegance and beauty of Inniswood, but no words could do it justice.
The first picture was me holding up a bunch of gorgeously rich, red roses. They were soft and a few petals fell into my palm so eloquently. They smelled earthly and natural, like something you could go all your life trying to recreate the scent of but won’t ever match it precisely because you’re working with chemicals and not natural elements from Mother Earth.
The second picture is a zoomed-out view of the roses and an accompanying cute pergola. From my eyes, it looked like something out of a fairytale. Just looking at it made me feel like a sort of princess. The third picture focuses on a little pathway area that is surrounded by a variety of blooming plants. It is a great area for pictures, and my favorite plant in that bunch was the lavender, as you will see in the last picture in this group.
Something about the next picture fascinates me every time I look at it. I think it is how the lights reflect upon the trees and illuminate them in a particular way. It’s also cool that it follows a slanted line, almost like it’s a perspective drawing in an art class.
Like I mention in the caption, I took this picture outside of my dorm on campus. It was like 9 p.m. at night and I was waiting for Meredith to pick me up, I think, to go to the Scioto Mile for another talk about life. I thought the trees and lights were picturesque and really enjoyed the moment.
Below, you will see another picture I took (obviously, because this blog is full of pictures I’ve taken around Columbus). This was right outside of COSI, which, if you haven’t heard of COSI or aren’t familiar with it, stands for Center Of Science and Industry.
COSI is in the same area as the Scioto Mile and Genoa Park. This was another late night adventure to the area after a stressful week, and the trio, as I like to call us, sat down for some Wendy’s before exploring the outside of COSI. I like that they light up the entrance with different colors, and the red looked especially nice. It felt like I was going to witness or be in the beginning scene of an action movie for some reason.
Almost to the end here, folks, just two more spots to talk about. This view is what I see from the 10th floor of the William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library on campus. You can see the two dorm towers (Morrill and Lincoln), the practice field, part of the RPAC, and part of the Ohio Stadium, amongst other academic buildings.
This lovely view is what I saw when I visited my book in the library. I thought it was wonderful to be able to have such a pretty view to look forward to whenever I would stop to see my book any time I went to the library. I could visit my pride and joy, and get to see my favorite stadium and beautiful landscape.
The last gallery of pictures we have is mostly of the area surrounding Mirror Lake, which I know we covered earlier in this post, but it was too beautiful a day to not stop for a moment to commemorate it.
I think it perfectly captured fall on camera. The fallen leaves that have turned yellow, the more grey sky, the wet pavement from being rainy (and the wonderful rain scent that was in the air). I’m so glad I took these pictures because I saw the beauty in south campus that I really needed to see in some aspect of life, and it made me feel grateful to be alive to experience it.
Whew! That was a lot. I have just detailed a good portion of the spots/places I’ve visited around Columbus the past four months, and included pictures to go with them. I know I am no pro photographer, but doing this gave me documentation of me enjoying life and finding the beauty in it, which was the end goal/most important to me.
I hope you, too, may enjoy simple things like this in life. I think I can take away from these pictures to soak up the good times and live in the moment. You will make lots of core memories doing so, and what better way to live than to focus on the joy? I will leave you with this question for next time, and until then, stay happy, healthy, and in good spirits.
With peace and love, T
Tearing Your Pages 
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