January 26, 2011

I found this picture on a pillar by the bike racks next to my building in October. When I first found it, I could not believe I had never noticed it before. I'm sure you have all seen one of those pictures that you can see two different ways. For example, if you look at it one way, it's clearly an old woman but when you focus on a different part, you see a cat. Once you see the other image, it's hard to see the original picture again. That's how I felt about this encounter. I pass this pillar multiple times a day, and once I noticed this painting, I could never go past it without noticing it. 

I chose this picture for my first blog entry, because it was one of the first things I found around campus. (But as you can tell by the snow, I didn't take a picture of it until today.) I started taking pictures of funny, peculiar or plain old interesting things when I got a camera phone. Be it a half-eaten sandwich that's the same shape as Africa, or be it a squirrel holding a cookie; if I like it, I'll take a picture of it. Sometimes finding things like these even have the power to make my day. If I take a hilarious picture and put it as my phone background, I will laugh at it every single time I take out my phone and thus make me serendipitous. 

But it's not just things I see that fascinate me. It's also parts of conversations I overhear or someone turning a corner while singing, thinking they are alone- until they run into me or someone else. 

Part of the reason why I love Penn State so much, is the diversity of the people (and their personalities) and the impact they have on my college experience. Whether they leave their mark by painting on the side of a building, or talk loud enough for me to hear, I thank them for making my college years amusing.