This winter is getting longer and longer... It seems that every year at this time is when I begin to feel it. A couple weeks ago, we were teased with a few splendid warm days only to be tortured with many more bitter windy cold ones since. There is no end to this bleakness in sight. It is despairing moments like these that I cheerily look to the bright side: for my last "spring break" ever (I graduate from college in May), I'm embarking on a little getaway to Southern California. It will be a very welcome hiatus from the frosty midwinter; warm sunshine, tranquil beaches, old Spanish buildings, bare mountains, and not the least of these: a welcoming face. It will be a reflective time to ponder not the things of the real world, such as graduating and getting a job and making money, but to get back to the things which make up my world: family, relationships, photography... Yes, I expect to have many a great photographic opportunity while I'm "adventuring". The cliff-ridden beaches and treeless landscapes offered by the Southwest are most unusual wonders to me having grown up in verdant Virginia, as are the dusty old towns sprinkled along the sprawling freeways. Being one who draws most of my inspiration from nature, come summer I hope to make it all the way up north to Yosemite. But in preparation for such a grand outing, for now I'll lay low and soak up some sun in SoCal. I am hopeful this will energize me, leaving me fully charged so I may return to my bleak Virginia and see my college career (and this miserable winter) to its long-awaited finish on that ever-nearing horizon.

Here's to Perseverance!