Two of my favorite activities are walking and talking (hence why I was a summer tour guide for three months). On a campus as beautiful as Swarthmore’s, there are obviously many places to go on a lovely stroll, alone or with people, but my personal favorite is any path that takes me through the Crum Woods to Crum Creek. Swarthmore sits on around 425 acres of land, and a lot of that land is in the Crum. The woods (and their namesake/late-night café, Crumb Café) are cherished and frequented by Swarthmore students.
There’s also no doubt that Swarthmore can be a lot of work. As a primarily humanities-based student, I have lots of readings to do, discussion posts to write, and theorists to try to make sense of. In fact, I am currently writing this post to stave off doing some of the aforementioned readings and discussion posts. Despite this, I’m a big proponent of stopping a work session when you need to, especially if it means a chance to go out into the woods.
A few weeks ago, on a particularly gray and glum day, I dragged two of my best friends into the woods for an impromptu Crum walk. We took our usual path, and after winding around some rocks and trees, we reached the Creek. I love the woods a lot (obviously), but the Creek may be my favorite part. I was wearing a really atrocious pair of shoes for stomping through the Creek, but that never stopped me from stomping around in creeks as a child, and it certainly didn’t stop me two weeks ago. I squatted (admittedly quite gingerly) to get closer to the water. I’ve always loved listening to the water. As a kid, whenever my family would go on vacations to the Great Lakes, I would always wander away from everyone to hear the sounds of the water lapping at the shore. In high school, my friends and I would go to creeks and lakes in the woods, and again, I would shush them to hear the sounds of the water. I’m sure it’s shocking that I became an Environmental Studies major. Anyway, I squatted down in the Creek (in the shallowest part of the water where the rocks were still peaking out for me to step on) and listened to the water. I watched the little fish swim around. I examined the moss covering the rocks. I almost fell off a large rock face-first into the water. And maybe most beautifully, I got to spend time with my friends. They were a little less willing to get into the water and poke around, but it’s always better to be by a creek with friends.
When I was looking for a college, I was genuinely really concerned about having a body of water near me. I’ve always lived close to lakes, creeks, or ponds, and I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be away from them. Fortunately for me, and everyone at Swarthmore, Crum Creek is always a short walk away. Finding ways to step away from work and into nature (and especially water) has been instrumental for me and my mental well-being at Swarthmore. There are so many lovely places to find peace here!
