This last quarter of the school year has been really hard for me. My mom always tells me to be my own sunshine but that has been a little harder the past few weeks. Finals are coming up and there just never seems to be enough time in the day.

We get so caught up in our lives that we end up getting tunnel vision. We walk down the sidewalk with our headphones in and probably running through a to-do list in our heads. When I’m walking back to my apartment from the train stop at the end of the day I’m usually thinking of everything I still have to get done. Like I said, there are just not enough hours in the day.

Last quarter my friend I were taking a walk and we saw a cardinal. She told me that when you see a cardinal it means the spirit of a loved one who has passed away is visiting you. I had never heard this before. It may seem like some silly, made up tale that people believe, but I’d like to think it’s true.

I was walking home from the grocery store the other day and as luck would have it, it started rain a little on my walk back to my apartment. And in that moment I literally could not be my own sunshine. All my sunshine had been used up. I picked up my pace and I was almost to my apartment when a cardinal flew down and started walking on the sidewalk outside of my apartment building. I stopped in my tracks and just looked at it for a minute. Then it flew up into the tree and sat there.

I know it’s cheesy and lame, but I couldn’t help but think about what my friend told me. I really believe that was my grandpa trying to tell me to just breathe and keep my head up. For the first time in a while I wasn’t thinking about everything I have to get done and I didn’t even care that I was standing in the rain. It was really nice to just take a moment to breathe. So thanks for visiting, Grandpa. You really helped me get a little bit of my sunshine back.