NAFD

The dinner party

On Sunday night the NAFD crew gathered to celebrate the end of another semester and another season of our lives.

Some of us are staying here, some traveling to other countries, others are moving across the country, and another is biking across the country. Out of our darling group, we have a wide variety of different passions and loves and it is always exciting to see.

I love these ones more than most anything on earth.

“If I knew that today would be the last time I’d see you, I would hug you tight and pray the Lord be the keeper of your soul. If I knew that this would be the last time you pass through this door, I’d embrace you, kiss you, and call you back for one more. If I knew that this would be the last time I would hear your voice, I’d take hold of each word to be able to hear it over and over again. If I knew this is the last time I see you, I’d tell you I love you, and would not just assume foolishly you know it already.”- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

*Some photos by the ever lovely and talented Ora*

The last NAFD of the semester

Another end to another season.

Last Thursday, the NAFD family gathered for one last dinner of the semester. There was a fire for a little while. . . Games were played. Riddles were solved. Music was created. Confessions happened.

And I even got to dance a bit.

These people have shaped my college career more than anything//anyone else and NAFD is truly sacred. And will always be that way.

Big love to all of these ones right now in the midst of exam madness and end-of-the-year-stressing.

PA road trip recap

A brief recap from our time together in Pennsylvania ->

We learned that we did not know our animals very well, we listened to this and our world was made bigger, we went hiking in the Catskills in NY, we laughed, *some of us cried, and we read poems in the car.

It was everything it could have been.

I’m in D.C. as I write this. I’m in a state of panic and praying that I can actually make my flight tonight. . .

Something will happen, good or bad and I am confident there is some sort of resolution . . . this always happens with big travels and sometimes I question why I like all this so much.

“Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.”

– Matthew Arnold

[Photos: Union Dale, PA//Grace Farson]

The company you keep

These people help make my life feel complete.

Honestly, these people are the reason. . . The reason I’m loving life, I’m inspired constantly, and I’m happy. These people don’t even know how much they mean to me.

Last night’s NAFD was magic – 100 shelton st. love // bonfire // cider // bread // candles// porch lights//talent show [*readings, improv, poetry, videos, math solving, ukelele performances, and dancing] // late night // light rain // laughter // tears // joy // bliss

+ All the love to Laura. Her family. And her community here at UNC.

[Video: The Company You Keep | A celebration of the people I’m proud to know and the dinners we have//Grace Farson]

Running away

Running away is what I am most comfortable with in all of life. . . So, tonight I’m running to the city I tend to runaway to the most . . .

D.C.

Some of these pretty faces and I are jumping in Ora’s car and driving into the night after this . . . I’m more than excited to see Maria in Annapolis, hang out with Tom [*the last time we saw each other we were sitting in a tiny airport in Indonesia], dance to Sigur Ros, and sit in a hot tub on a roof with Kelsey + Alex.

+ More thoughts on running . . . this article and this:

“People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they’ll go to any length to live longer. But don’t think that’s the reason most people run. Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe running helps you to do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life — and for me, for writing as whole. I believe many runners would agree” – Haruki Murakami

+ Other recent D.C. trips remembered here and here.

[Photos: Colder winter days full of light in the capitol//Grace Farson]