Life in the Fast Lane

Life is like a highway. It is never ending and although it has a speed limit you can choose whether or not to be average and drive the speed limit or take the risk and go beyond the social norm, knowing that you are being watched never slowing down to please all those that pass judgment. The rules of the highway are only guidelines that society expects you to follow. In life, I consider these rules to be nothing more than guidelines. Successful women and men in society did not earn their success by following the social norm. However, the essential characteristic that kept them from running of the highway in the attempt to deviate from the social norm was wisdom. Wisdom is a quality that keeps you on the straight and narrow path and makes adjustments for those curves that may come in life. Living life in the fast lane is not a bad thing. In fact, it is not for everyone. Social Darwinism says it best only the strong survive.

Geocaching

Who would have thought that by taking a class geared towards the struggles and success of women would require such a physical involvement. During the first week of classes, I experienced my first Geocaching experience. Now can I just say before this class I had no idea what Geocaching was and why people around the world were so interested in it. The field trip took us about 4 miles away from campus to Tanglewood Nature Center and we were given a GPS and a sheet of paper with clues and coordinates of the objects we were supposed to fine. The first clue was to find the red trail. We found the red trail but this part of the red trail was in the complete opposite direction of the needle on the GPS system that was leading us off the trail. We followed the red trail instead of the GPS and decided that we were getting further away from the object so we decided to turn around and tumble down a hill. For the record, no one was hurt as we tumbled down the hill and no bones were broken in this attempt to find the caches. We eventually found the cache box, but it took us like two and a half hours. After finding the first box, I was told that rattlesnakes and garden snakes were in the woods. When I heard this, I made a conscious decision not to stray of the path at all anymore, because I did not come all the way from the Bahamas to be bitten by a rattlesnake. Furthermore, I was taking this as a class, which means that I would have paid to be bitten. The next half of the trip took us about two more hours to complete because we got to the location of the next clue but it was impossible to find. Neither of the groups were able to find it so I did not feel to bad. However, on the way back to the start of the trails, we came upon a garden snake. For the record, I was told that there would not be any snakes because it was not warm enough. I did not see the snake I only heard the cries of Claudette. When she said it was a snake my mind immediately thought of a rattlesnake so without thinking I ran into the woods. That was a stupid idea because that is where the snakes would be instead of on the paths. After we passed the stupid garden snake, we all met up again on the trail and walked back to the campsite. This was an experience to last a lifetime and who would have thought I would have done something like this in a Women’s Studies class. Only with Dr. Maluso can a class that you expect to just be class work turn into life experiences. I would definitely recommend taking this class or any other class with her.