I know this may sound super spacey of me, but whenever I see a sunset, no matter what I’m doing, I get so wrapped up in the sight of it all that I lose track for 20 minutes at a time.

Nature freak. That’s me. Now that it’s actually safe to go outside (as in it isn’t a below-zero temperature where we will become snow people). I would like to stress the importance of taking time out of your everyday busy, hectic life to just look at the world around you and be amazed at how truly grand it is.

We all have worries and we all have stress. One weekend, with exams piling up on us, my roommate and I stocked up on Einstein bagels, closed our blinds and trapped ourselves in our tiny little room for three straight days pretending the outside world did not exist.

What I missed in those few days of isolation was the sweet time of looking up at the sky and thinking of bigger and greater things.

Throughout high school, my friends and I had a way of calming ourselves down. Whenever any of us had a problem, or some sort of massive stressor, we would pick each other up, take a blanket and go watch the sun set and the stars appear.

This was a way to slap us into the face of reality. Whatever problem was occurring in that moment, no matter how big or detrimental it may have seemed to be, was insignificant in the sights of the entire universe lying before us.

Still to this day, whenever I have a problem that seems like the end of the world, I take a breath and go outside. It’s crazy to think about how small you are compared to the entire solar system; to take comfort in the fact that no matter what happened yesterday, five years ago or even five minutes from now, the sun will still rise tomorrow, and you will have another day to live.

Your struggles are not as huge as you perceive them to be. There are so many bigger things out there than what’s in front of you at this very moment.

Even if you aren’t an outdoor lover, I think you can really get a lot from going on a walk somewhere every once in awhile. I know it may sound a little hippy to tell everyone to “be one with nature,” but honesty, to this day I still can’t get over how pretty the world around us is.

The colors of the sky, the lush trees that give us oxygen and the smell of the forest; none of it ever gets any less breathtaking.

I think we as college kids get so wrapped up in our studies we forget to take time for ourselves. To really relish in the world around us, and think about the circumstances we are in.

Sometimes, isolation is what we need to get our homework done. But with the sight of the nice weather now, make sure that you take a break every once in awhile, go outside and appreciate how beautiful this world is.