The cure for anything is saltwater; sweat, tears, or the sea.- Isak Dinesen

Finals are looming and my fight or flight is kicking into high gear. Traditionally I'm a fighter. Traditionally, I am traditional, but I am all out of sorts these days. I'm the one who loves the cool weather, fireplaces, and Christmas lights, hot cocoa, and baking to warm the house up, but suddenly, I am craving salty air and crashing waves. The thought of a warm and snowless Christmas has never before appealed to me, so I don't know why it suddenly seems like medicine for my soul. I keep picturing Christmas lights on palm trees and plastic pink flamingos with santa hats and a Christmas tree full of sea shells and sand dollars with a starfish on top to boot.

There is something calming about the sea, something about the way it is so magnificent, powerful and uncontrolled. Today I long to see it and feel the cold, wet sand beneath my toes. The ocean is in my blood encoded somewhere in my genes between the knack for cooking and getting sunburned in less than 30 minutes. 

Now it's time to get back to studying, to fight to the finish

but oh how my heart longs to be here instead.

I want to be free, 

Wind in my hair, 

Salt on my skin, 

Sun in the air.

-Gavin Degraw