I laced up my shoes and headed down the hill onto the countryside road, my eyes adjusting to the evening light. My headphones had no battery, which unsettled me more than I expected. Somewhere along the way, I’d conditioned myself to reach a running mood only once my alt-rock playlist started, as if the music was what gave me permission to begin. 

There’s something about knowing your time in a place is limited. It makes you do more, see more, appreciate things others take for granted. That urgency creates a magnetism. Newness carries a kind of magic. Barely 24 hours in, and he was already renting a car and planning a spontaneous trip. I admire—and miss—that kind of energy. The kind I had while on exchange at Dartmouth.