Barney, and me.

This is the very first picture that I took of Barney. On Tuesdays this past semester, I would begin my day by waking up at 8:50 am to get ready for my 9:30 class. Afterwards, I would walk roughly 10 blocks to arrive at the Terra Trace apartment complex. In the absence of a camera, I would take out my laptop, open up photo booth, turn up the brightness on my computer to 100%, and try to find a new angle of Barney that I would capture. I never wanted to post the same perspective as a picture I had previously taken (until today, but the purpose of  the reshowing this photo is purely for nostalgia's sake).

It began with me standing out in the cold, holding the laptop with my bare hands, trying to angle my computer so that I could have a worthwhile picture. Luckily it never rained while I was trying to snap off a photo. But after I got the shot I wanted, I would head into the apartment complex where I would see two of my friends, Emily and Sully. At first they wondered what I was doing, and I explained to them that I was blogging about one of the trees in the courtyard, Barney. They became accustomed to this taking place every Tuesday, so after a while they would ask how Barney was doing, and even tell me about their observations about Barney.

It didn't stop there. I would be over at their place, hanging out and whatnot, and we would be out on the deck, sometimes just Sully and myself, and we would talk about Barney. Mostly about how he's budding, how beautiful he is--things of that nature. More importantly though, it would spark conversation about the environment and our place in it. Barney slowly didn't just become a tree known by 3 people, he became a symbol for me and friends.

Most people would look at the task of blogging about a tree and not think much of it. Someone having to do it might scoff at the task, consider it a waste of time. I'll admit, at times the prompts were not my favorite. Each week I knew that on Tuesday I would blog about Barney and I decided to take advantage of that opportunity.

Barney, it was fun. I will continue to see you throughout my time at IU. Swing easy in the breeze my friend.

James Gross