In December of 2014, my mom received her Master's degree in Instructional Design from Purdue University. Having spent the better part of two years taking online courses on top of working full-time, she decided that there was no way she wouldn't walk to receive her degree. Now, Purdue is in Indiana, and my family is from northwestern Pennsylvania. It's quite a trip to take the whole family out there, but she wanted us all to be there, so we decided to make a mini vacation out of it. We packed up the car and drove out to Indiana for a five-day weekend, even bringing the dog with us. (My mom had found the first and only dog-friendly hotel I've encountered so far in my life.) During our walk around Purdue's campus on the first day of festivities for the graduating class of that December, I spotted an apple lying under a bench in the quad, and I pulled out my camera for a quick snap. I had a slice down the side as if someone had meant to eat it. I'm not quite sure how it wound up under the bench.