"Don't get lost in the forest because you're too busy looking at the trees." Professor of Biology Dominic Poccia would often remind his class of this adage and it proved to be invaluable in trying to pass Developmental Biology. However, in life, we too often miss out on the entire forest because we are too busy not getting lost looking at the trees. We run around from place to place doing thing after thing, but often we forget why we are going to these places or doing these things in the first place. We do them out of habit instead of out of desire. We neglect ourselves in the present because we are too busy worrying about the future. We fail to "stop and smell the roses," as the old saying goes.

Over the summer, my friend Ben and I went down to Cape Cod for a weekend, planning to check out a wildlife preserve in Wellfleet. We weren't exactly sure where it was, but we figured we'd search for it anyway; it would be an adventure. So with our handy "Road Atlas of the United States," which listed Massachusetts on a shared page with Connecticut and showed two roads on Cape Cod, Route 6 and Route 28, we set out north on Route 6 towards Wellfleet with the windows down, sunroof open and the cool summer breeze flowing through the car.

Having taken Route 6 correctly, finding the wildlife preserve proved to be less of an adventure than we expected. However, dodging the strange bugs that would pop out the ground without warning gave us all the adventure we would need. Reminiscing about how the bugs reminded us of the moles from "Moo Moo Farm" in Mario Kart 64, which would similarly pop out of the ground trying to make your car crash, we dodged bugs until we reached the exit, having barely spent an hour at the park. So with the entire afternoon left we decided to drive back to Bourne following Route 28 for a change of scenery and to see what random things we could encounter along the way. It didn't take us long; still in Wellfleet we found a flea market and for the first time in my life, I had to deal with the awkward encounter that comes along when someone tries to sell you old bottle caps. Even stranger, Ben realized that he had actually been to this flea market when he was younger. And when we passed Orleans, Ben, still feeling nostalgic, decided that he wanted to find a cool card shop that he used to visit during his childhood. He had no idea how to get there, but as we were exploring the Cape anyway, we decided to go find it. Ben issued such helpful directions as "take a left, no go right" and "I think I actually remember this, go straight," which I skeptically followed; yet, to my amazement, we actually found the store.

Unfortunately, we had completely lost track of where we were. So following our visit to the shop we headed out for the beach in Chatham driving pretty much by compass bearing alone. Along the way, we passed a repetitive sequence of mini golf courses with waterfalls, ice cream shops and Cranberry Real Estate signs. Ben was sure we were going in circles, but we still managed to find Chatham and a nice beach. We relaxed on the beach and threw a Frisbee around for a bit and then we decided to try to catch the end of the USA vs. Italy World Cup game. I knew Hyannis was pretty nice and probably had a sports bar, so we found Route 28 again and headed for Hyannis. We got there pretty quickly only to find that we had the wrong start time and that the game was already over. It didn't really matter anyway since the only good view of the TV was at the bar itself and we weren't allowed to sit there because we were under 21. So joking about how ridiculous it was that we weren't even allowed to watch the highlights of the game, we walked around the town for a bit and then as it was getting late, we decided to head back home to Bourne, amazed at all of the random, unexpected and interesting things that we had found without even having had a destination on our journey.

Now you might wonder why I just told you about my random adventures on Cape Cod. Here's why: It wasn't the places we went or the things that we did that were interesting or meaningful. They were, in fact, pretty mundane and boring. Yet the trip was still incredibly rewarding, probably one of the best trips I have ever taken. I didn't have to go anywhere extremely cool or see something spectacular. I just spent a warm summer day with one of my best friends enjoying the small things in life instead of getting bogged down trying to get from point to point, trying to survive the rat race that many of our lives are becoming. Ben and I didn't have a destination and we didn't have to worry about being late because we had no where that we needed to be. We simply enjoyed the view.

However, in today's world, enjoying the view is something of which too few people take advantage. We rush from place to place trying to get everything done in time. We study for the MCATs; we play on three sports teams at once; we spend days without seeing the sun (and not because it's raining). And to what end? To get to the next point so that we can do the same thing again? We avoid getting distracted by the trees in the forest, but at the same time we neglect to notice that they are even there.

Now I don't believe that you should stop studying and drop out of school. But I do believe that it's not only important, but necessary, to take a break from the race to nowhere that too many of our lives are becoming. We need to enjoy the walk for the walk, not for the fact that it gets us from lunch to chemistry lab before the professor kills us for being late. I see too many people worrying about too many things, especially myself. That trip with Ben has shown me that there are more important things than going from point A to point B as efficiently as possible. If you don't enjoy what's actually between point A and B, you'll get to point B and forget why you even went there in the first place.

So while you study for endless tests that you think you'll never pass and write an infinite number of papers that you think you'll never finish this year, make sure that you enjoy the view, because the view truly is wonderful here at Amherst.

Barbieri is a sophomore majoring in neuroscience and economics. He is a member of ACEMS and MassPIRG. John enjoys being manipulative and beating people at games.