This very ordinary photo captures everything but an ordinary moment for me. The very moment and the feeling I vividly remember.

After three and a half years of work, focused on one big project, one big goal. After three intense weeks of constant writing and editing, day and night, that passed in a blink of an eye. After 24 sleepless hours of formatting, correcting, printing and binding, when everything possible went wrong the last minute. I made it. The night was warm and sticky for March, and nightingales sang as I biked from my office at 5 am through a cozy, sleepy suburb of Berlin. I caught an hour of sleep before going to the University office (which only opens two hours a day, two days a week by the way, and yes, of course this was the last possible day for this task). And I submitted my PhD thesis. No missing pages, messy ink, tilted print; no crashes of the public transportation systems, no flat bike tires, no misplaced documents or irregularly filled forms. I really made it.

Boy, it was a weird feeling. It’s not every day one gets to pass such a milestone. But it was such an ordinary thing, bringing few papers to some office and leaving without them. No trumpets to acknowledge the achievement.

More things needed to be done, but what felt as the weight of the world, was suddenly lifted off my shoulders. I walked through the Botanical Garden, another place where I worked, as I phoned with my parents. When I was done, I looked around. Sun was behind the clouds, there was a light chilly breeze. And rain drops were hanging from the pine needles like little pearls. They made me smile.

I realized I couldn’t remember how was the weather like for last couple of weeks; I just didn’t notice it. Focused on one thing and fully submerged in my thoughts, I’ve been walking past these little wonders, missing on nice things that are around every day.

Sometimes we forget to notice beautiful moments while chasing our dreams. And sometimes it takes just one of those moments to get reminded of it. Beauty is in little things around us, every day. Let’s keep our minds and eyes open and allow them to make us smile.

 

For more beautiful moments check out the Gallery.