Fall break was very relaxing for me. It gave me some time to see family again and get away from the daily grind at SUNY Oswego. But before that, on Oct. 11, Faith Summerville and I helped facilitate the safe rescue and relocation of a wandering, hefty snapping turtle. 

It was extremely bizarre to me, as I did not know that there were snapping turtles here in upstate New York, and I had certainly never seen any. When turning into the main entrance of the campus, heading toward Tyler Hall, we spotted the turtle in the middle of the street. I safely avoided it but kept my eye on it in the rearview mirror. When I saw other cars barely able to get out of the way for the turtle, Faith convinced me to turn around to help it.

When we pulled to the side of the road, we started to direct traffic as there were a ton of cars pulling in quickly, not noticing the turtle. We planned on using a giant stick to try pushing  the turtle onto the grass that divides the two roads when a car pulled up next to us and gave advice on how we could accomplish it better. The person ended up pulling to the side to help us.

At this point, Faith and I were of no help, as the kind stranger, an art professor who was already going to be late to class, was trying to  pick up the turtle. That is when a photographer showed up to take some pictures and luckily for us, he also had gloves. He was able to safely move the turtle out of harm’s way and set it in a spot that hopefully it would stay and explore.

Although we were not able to do much, being there for moral support, as well as directing people out of the turtle’s way, was very rewarding. 

Speaking of rewarding, over fall break, we went pumpkin picking, my first time doing so in many years. With those pumpkins, we did a carving competition. Now, I am not artistically gifted by any means, but it was a lot of fun picking out a design and then attempting to finely chop up a pumpkin with zero experience.

We are halfway through the semester now; it is flying by and the end will be upon us soon enough. The club baseball season is almost over too. Our final regular season doubleheader is this weekend against Cornell, and if we win both we get a first round bye in the playoffs. My season has been going well so far, so I hope I can end it strong and go out on top. 

Photo by: Ben Diamond