It is indisputable that life moves fast at Wake Forest.

The days here are long, yes, but the weeks fly by. It feels as though we arrived on campus yesterday — eagerly moving into new dorm rooms and re-hanging old posters.

Yet, we are already a quarter of the way through the semester. For some, this pace might be cause for celebration — only 20 more philosophy lectures to go.

For others, the speed of the semester might be troubling — a wake up call to stop eating Chick-fil-A twice a day and start conserving those Old Golds. Whether you’re a senior navigating the last year of college before the “real world” or a freshman still figuring out how to navigate the Pit without being growled at by an upperclassman, cheer up! Only a few more weeks of figuring it out until you go home for Winter Break, only to come back and have to figure it out all over again in the spring!

Our point is, if you were blissfully unaware of the fact that we’ve already been on campus for a month, who could blame you?

Throughout the early goings of this semester, it often felt as if every day brought about a new headline, each heavier and more impactful than the last. With meaningful and far-reaching events occurring practically every day, we here at the Old Gold & Black have found ourselves caught in a vicious cycle and losing sight of the bigger picture.

And yes, there is a bigger picture. In the big picture, there are students tossing a frisbee on the quad, friends strolling through the tree-lined path on their way to Reynolda village, teachers and students chatting over a cup of coffee outside of Camino.

Being an active and participatory member on and of our Wake Forest community is important, but so too is making the time to be with the people you care about and doing those things which bring you joy.

So, let it be known that the serendipitous moments of running into your freshman roommate at a football game are far more valuable than that extra hour spent studying in ZSR. The trees on our campus are beautiful, but don’t lose sight of the Forest.