The scene reminded my son Matt of The Ant Attack, a Tom and Jerry cartoon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaDS6lxPGYs&feature=related. I was walking on the track at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. There were the usual half-dozen other walkers/joggers on the track with me. The track sits down in a bowl and it’s surrounded by a campus driveway. The area between the track and the driveway is a grassy hill. While walking I was listening to music on my iPhone. As I came around the turn in the track facing the main entrance, I mindlessly looked up and was shocked by what I saw.
About 150 high school girls dressed in athletic gear and carrying lacrosse sticks were streaming down the driveway, over the hill, across the track and onto the football field. It was an interesting image. I saw the girls as they had the entire landscape filled. It looked like a military exercise.
My experience with the lacrosse-playing high-schoolers was a pleasant reminder of the importance of awareness. While enjoying free time away from the pressures of life and enhancing that freedom with easy access to music, we can easily lose track of our surroundings and be shocked back into reality. The girls taught me to keep my head up and keep an eye on what’s happening around me.
