Off-List Item #2: Get Lost in a Corn Maze

One of the greatest pleasures of the last 15 months of my life has been owning a car. I lived in D.C. for just about nine years, and the only time I kept a car there was the summer before my junior year of college, during which I paid out the nose for parking and a cab rear ended me after it made an illegal U-turn on Virginia Avenue. Needless to say, between my dislike of city driving, my love of not paying $200+ a month for a parking spot, and a truly superior D.C. public transportation system, I never needed -- or really wanted -- a car.

Suburban delights: cider mills.

Then I moved to Michigan, bought my beloved Iris (my car...yes, I named her, but we Clements name all our vehicles), and fell in love. She is wonderful and allows me to do fun things like go to Trader Joe's, visit drive-thru ATMs, and take trips to corn mazes and cider mills on lovely fall afternoons, things public transportation never allowed me to do in D.C. My fantastic friend Janet flew in from New York City and we really pulled out all the stops to show her a true Michigan weekend: Halloween parties, tailgating, football, more Halloween parties and, finally, corn maze-ing at Talladay Farms. It was a lovely autumnal AND suburban weekend.

And patriotic! The theme of the maze, we found out upon arriving, was "American Pride", as the maze was cut into the shape of the U.S. (and, according to the website linked above, there's another maze -- perhaps the haunted one that was out of commission that day? -- that's cut into the shape of a bald eagle. AMURRRICA!). We snapped quick iPhone pictures of the map posted at the entrance before venturing in, and it's a good thing, because 30-45 minutes of mud, group speculation, more mud, dead ends, Girl Scout troops, attempts to husk corn and use it as trail markers, and probably too much reliance upon the "feelings" we all had (i.e. "I feel like we should go this way, this feels right"...that's what you get for going to a corn maze with a bunch of social work students), we were straight-up lost.

But, we kept reminding each other, being lost in a maze is the point, isn't it? It's as nonsensical as people who get mad when they have to drink during a game of beer pong. So even though we grumbled a bit about finding our way out, we mostly enjoyed the weather, the company and the novelty of doing something so new and seasonal. Then, when we'd had enough corn, we pulled out the iPhone map pictures and found our way to the end, unscathed except for some mud-caked footwear. 

Corn mazes: a-maize-ing & a-maze-ing.

Now is where I get all Forrest Gump philosophical on you guys. Even though we were "lost", and we had several group conversations about pooling our resources in case we got stuck in an "Alive"-like scenario (we had half a can of Diet Coke, breath mints and some nasty corn to get us through the night) or the likelihood of getting an airlift out of there, we knew we'd make it to the end.

Lately, it's been super easy for me to get bogged down -- and frustrated -- in the day-to-day of paper writing, classes and work. I've been assured by many that this is natural, and nearly every friend who's been through grad school has recalled feeling roughly, if not exactly, the same. So I think I am going to stop grumbling and start looking at grad school a little like the corn maze. It might be some work, I might pick up some mud on my cuffs along the way, and even though I don't have an iPhone map or a waiting airlift, I'll make it out. And hopefully, like on Sunday, there will be a caramel apple and a picnic table full of friends on the other side.

And there ya have it: a super corn-y post.