{"id":2665,"date":"2014-08-27T18:07:10","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T23:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/home.snc.edu\/susanallen\/?p=2665"},"modified":"2014-08-27T18:07:10","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T23:07:10","slug":"being-norbertine-one-lunch-break-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sncmagazine.knight.domains\/uncategorized\/being-norbertine-one-lunch-break-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Norbertine, One Lunch Break at a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The cover story in our latest issue set intern Amy Mrotek \u201917 thinking …<\/em><\/p>\n

I watched through the windows of Ed\u2019s caf\u00e9 as three male students \u2013 most likely\u00a0on their way back to campus from the dreaded Lot 12 parking lot, considered by many students to\u00a0be far out in the boonies of campus \u2013 exuberantly leaped through a sprinkler, no\u00a0doubt on to keep the library lawn green and glowing amidst the summer season.\u00a0It was the peak of a hot day. I chewed my turkey sandwich \u2013 the day\u2019s gourmet\u00a0lunch \u2013 and smiled inwardly. The sight of them partaking in a staple of childhood entertainment was\u00a0infectious.<\/p>\n

The scene got me thinking. The typical day rarely affords such comic relief. In fact,\u00a0the typical day rarely affords much relief at all. I know I\u2019m not alone when admitting\u00a0balancing my daily activities more often feels like a hurricane-strength tug-of-war\u00a0match than that breezy word \u2018life.\u2019 Responsibilities blur the already muddled lines of\u00a0the hours, as if being a college student who is supposed to be charting the course of\u00a0her life isn\u2019t daunting enough. I constantly plot mental to-do lists, missing the muse\u00a0of the moment in a perpetual effort to prioritize.<\/p>\n

In an age of status updates and serial coffee runs, selfies, smartphones and so much\u00a0swirling activity, the problem is clear. We all just need to slow it down.\u00a0It\u2019s exactly why I found our most recent magazine issue such a jet-blast of fresh air.\u00a0The center-spread, \u201cBeing Norbertine,\u201d not only overflowed with reflective content, but\u00a0its pages fueled an even higher message: It\u2019s okay to stop and smell the roses. It\u2019s\u00a0okay to appreciate the speckle of your momentary surroundings, to contemplate the\u00a0past not as a period ending the sentence, but an ellipsis alluding to more. \u201cBeing\u201d is\u00a0such a fantastic word to included in that title \u2013 a subtle syntax reminding us of the\u00a0circular connection existing with time.<\/p>\n

The word tradition \u2013 especially among people my age \u2013 seems to hold a bit of a\u00a0stigma to it, something used by old geezers to stifle modernity or progression.\u00a0Perhaps tradition isn\u2019t such a bad thing, though. Perhaps tradition, rather than stunt\u00a0the moment, regenerates the paints of past with the dyes of the present. Perhaps,\u00a0when used thoughtfully, tradition can serve as an impetus into the world of what\u2019s\u00a0to come. Perhaps tradition is just another word for future.<\/p>\n

Funny how all this came about from watching some guys play in a sprinkler. It\u00a0reminded me of the past, which put me in the moment, which in turn got me\u00a0reflecting on the future. It\u2019s a breath-catching experience. The next time you\u2019re\u00a0munching on a meal, maybe wash it down with a little quiet reflection, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The cover story in our latest issue set intern Amy Mrotek \u201917 thinking … I watched through the windows of Ed\u2019s caf\u00e9 as three male students \u2013 most likely\u00a0on their way back to campus from the dreaded Lot 12 parking…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sncmagazine.knight.domains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sncmagazine.knight.domains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sncmagazine.knight.domains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sncmagazine.knight.domains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sncmagazine.knight.domains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sncmagazine.knight.domains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sncmagazine.knight.domains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sncmagazine.knight.domains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sncmagazine.knight.domains\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}