It’s hard to imagine that I originally picked Philadelphia as the place to complete my undergraduate degree, as my love for nature has grown more and more.

“Oh, how the breakers roar / They keep pulling me farther from shore / Thoughts turn to a love so kind / Just to keep me from losing my mind / So enticing, deep dark seas / It’s so easy to drown in the dream”

I completed my first two years of undergrad at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Before I withdrew from my program and moved home to Virginia, I was at my lowest. The very air of the city seemed to choke me in its bedlam of noise and city bus fumes. It was even worse when the weather was hot. The glass buildings reflected the sun onto the street, frying passers-by on the scorched pavement.

For the most part, “Month in Mishawaka” was compiled to correspond with the chronological order in which the individual poems were written. The largest exception to this was the placement of “Middle School”.