Today has been absolute shit.

I wish life came with a re-do button and that I wasn't getting sick the week before finals.

Merr.

Seriously- how could you not be in love with this view? This was taken when my whole family went to the mountains in North Carolina two summers ago. Unadulterated nature like this is the reason I want to live in the middle of nowhere (theoretically speaking... because let't be real- I need civilization in my life) when I finally decide that I want to grow up and do something with my life. I can't speak for anyone else, but spending a week on top of this mountain with my favorite people on the planet put a lot of things into perspective for me. People spent too much time focused on the material things in life and being too into the latest trends that they tend to forget about the simplicity and beauty that is what we've had sitting in front of us (until someone feels the need to build a new parking lot somewhere) the whole time. Now, I'm hardly one that gets super excited about spending time in a place where I get no phone reception, I have to share two bathrooms with 17 other people, and the only restaurant in town is the Pizza Hut that hasn't been renovated since the 80's... but there's something about the quaintness of this little town nestled between the mountains that made me okay with pushing my slightly higher than average maintenance aside so that I could just appreciate the time that I got to spend with my family.

It's been almost two years since these pictures were taken.

I need a crash course in simplicity 101, because I'm so far away from the mindset I need to be in that it's ridiculous.