Journal Entry 2

My home at the moment is at Coastal Village Apartments. It has a nice trail that encircles a beautiful pond. It is 70 degrees in January, which is a lot better than the 30 degrees I am used to back in Missouri. Each morning I start my day by making coffee and sitting outside on my make shift porch.

 It is a very relaxing and peaceful way start to my day. I love the view of the pond and palm trees and typically the morning breeze. I would also say this is my "sense of place." On nice days I typically sit out there and do my homework, read a book, talk on the phone, or just simply enjoy the weather. Since moving out to Florida I have started becoming a more "outdoorsy" person and I fully believe it is due to the weather being nice year round. I love after having a stressful day being able to just come outside, breathe in some freeze air, and just take a step back and think about life. When I really need a break and the porch just isn't cutting it, I go on walks around the trail. Today I wasn't relieving stress specifically when I went on my walk, I went to actually just enjoy and appreciate my surroundings. It was pretty windy yesterday and might have stormed over night so I noticed a lot more dead palms laying around. I also saw this squirrel who allowed me to get very close to him, once I got too close though he ran up that tree and observed what I was doing. I also saw these 2 ducks (not exactly sure) walking around on land but heading towards the pond where I saw 4 smaller ducks in the pond swimming away.

It was still a little windy from yesterday but it was still a decently nice day. Throughout my walk around the pond I only saw one other person and fortunately for me she was also just enjoying the weather. She was sitting in a hammock, listening to music. I didn't exactly know what song she was listening to but it was very calming. It was fast or upbeat or too loud. It was soft and quiet. She didn't have a book or anything else either, she was just simply hanging out right there. I am not sure how long she had been there or how long she stayed but I do know that this might be her sense of place.