For one State College mom, taking time in nature after dropping the kids at summer camp is the secret to a harmonious life.

Exciting news! This peek behind the scenes of State College life is a guest post by local writer Carolyne Meehan. We hope you enjoy it!

My favorite week of summer is the third week of July. That’s the week I teach a creative writing camp for women and non-binary teens at The Makery, a super sweet art studio downtown where I have been a resident writing instructor for the last seven years. I have a small creative writing company, Write to Shine, with Katie Krebs, one of the first friends I made when I moved back to town. While our writing offerings are mostly for adult writers, this one week of summer camp for teens has been a week full of whimsy and play with teen writers for the past seven summers.

A large part of what made this week extra enjoyable was that I got to begin each morning with solo time in the woods. Summer living in State College for my family — two adults, our three kids ages 8, 12 and 15, and our pandemic puppy (now almost two years old) Rufus — means playing outside as much as possible. I even do most of my work, which is writing and teaching and mothering, from our spacious front porch that is really more like a tree house. Although we have a lot of soccer and gymnastics and family trips on the Google Calendar, we try not to overschedule, leaving room for our kids to bike and meet friends at the pool or head downtown for bubble tea and library books (ok they haven’t actually gone to the library on their own accord yet, but a book loving mom can dream). There’s room for spontaneous hikes, climbing sessions at Climb Nittany and trips to the pond to swim with Rufus.

I begin every morning with coffee and taking Rufus for a long walk – the woods happened after that first chunk of mandatory must-move-and-get-outside time. It just seemed to make sense that after I dropped my two youngest kids at their Shaver’s Creek summer camp at 9 AM, along with two other friends in our carpool, I should just stay there for a bit and explore on my own. Heck, writing camp didn’t start until 1:30!

I have to admit, I was proud of myself for planning ahead and registering my kids for this camp many months ago to align with writing camp so they would be taken care of and would hopefully be developing an undying love for nature while I was working. Maybe they’d even spot  a five lined skink! And, Shaver’s Creek, Penn State’s Environmental Center, is a special place for me. I’ve been connected to Shaver’s Creek since my undergrad days in the late ‘90s. When I moved back to State College from Arlington, VA, in 2008, I reconnected with the nature center and began facilitating for their team development programs. It was my first way to plug into a work community – and I still do some work for them from time to time.

As I watched most parents sign their kiddos in and then walk right back to their cars and head on out into their day, I realized that I would have been one of those parents not so long ago, eager to be free of my kids so I could get some “real” work done, or organize something at home, or meet a friend for lunch or do something “productive.” I know now that the more time I have in nature, the better I am – the better I feel – the more peace I have. I made the decision to take time each morning to fully be in this beautiful place.

The first morning I took my coffee and meandered a pine duff covered trail down to Lake Perez. I sat on the floating dock and looked for fish. I counted a few different kinds of dragonflies. I stretched and looked out across the water and daydreamed.

On another morning, I hiked the three mile loop around the lake with a dear friend who had her kids in camp for the week too. We saw a snake and swapped stories of road trips, travels, mothering and loss. We moved at a good clip and worked up a good sweat. I headed into the rest of my day energized.

Through the week I visited the raptor center where there are eagles and owls and other large birds of prey that can no longer survive in the wild. I scoped out a quiet section of the woods where we would pitch our tent for the camp out on the final night. For our twenty minute commute, I mastered the art of driving up and then down the mountain in third gear with barely a touch to our minivan’s breaks.

After each morning adventure, I’d return home for lunch and to pack my backpack with books and supplies for writing camp. I’d hop on my bike and roll to The Makery, just an eight minute ride away. We took our writers to the duck pond at the Alumni Center on Campus for inspiration. We found shade in the giant trees to scribble our personal mythologies and watched the turtles and koi make their way around the pond.

One day we wrote at the Arboretum, inviting the writers to incorporate sensory detail into their pages, to pay attention to the abundance of colors, smells, sounds and textures of their environment.  We celebrated all of our hard work with ice cream at the Creamery. These are just a few of the perks of being so close to the university.

After camp, I’d hop back on my bike and make my way home. Most days I made it home before my kids’ carpool arrived and just in time to check in with my oldest before he hopped on his bike to head to soccer training. I’d crack an ice cold seltzer on the porch and give a cheers to my husband and me for designing this kind of creative work/play life. I’d check on the monarch caterpillars we’d gathered from our milkweed patch and make sure they had enough fresh leaves to eat. Then I’d head inside to make our family dinner and get ready to do it all again the next day.