Laura Mustio

I’ve been sharing State College stories with you for almost a full year now and I’m constantly amazed by how different my experience is these days. I’m delighted to report that I’ve found the tip of a really wonderful community iceberg.

I’m doing my best to intentionally scoop up and soak in these “catch them while you can” moments before they’re gone again for another year. And in true State College fashion, my Fall Highlight Reel is gathering memorable experiences both big and so small that you might totally miss them if you didn’t live in a place that allowed you to regularly slow down and notice.

Maybe it’s because fall feels a little more mysteeeerious than all of the other seasons. But lately, I’m becoming aware of something interesting. State College is full of secret trap doors.

Wow. October has been filled with so many experiences I’ve wanted to share with you! To start us off, here are 5 things that have pleasantly surprised me this month, in no particular order.

I wrote the whole place off in one “It’s just for kids!” swoop and never looked back. Until this summer.

If you want to actually see the booths and walk through the festival at more than a sleepy-herd-of-cows-on-a-summer’s-day pace, this is your golden ticket.

I’ve realized that for a whole bunch of years, I was consuming all of the cool things about State College, but not fully participating. I was showing up with more of a “what does this town have to offer me?” kind of vibe, instead of also considering what I had to offer in return.

Just last week, as my to do list was piling up and I started to feel the overwhelm set in, I quickly threw on a pair of flip flops that didn’t match my outfit (have yet to run into the Fashion Police around town), looped around the block for 10 minutes, and experienced that downshift.