When I first moved to Illinois my first year at NIU, I struggled painfully with homesickness. And like the tiny, acrobatic superheroes they are, campus squirrels helped me cope. I’m hoping they’ll help me face a different challenge this semester.
As a rookie in Illinois, squirrels weren’t new to me during freshman year the way wispy cypress trees, wide-eyed praying mantis and bumbling racoons were.
The poor, skinny, northern squirrels back home in Alaska are understandably terrified of all people and often hidden high in trees.
But campus squirrels, who are plump on acorns with chestnut tummies and fluffy tails, don’t mind NIU students all that much. In fact, NIU’s campus seems to be fantastically overrun with squirrels.
They scurry in the periphery of any passerby on campus, chasing each other up and down trees, chittering excitedly about various intense squirrel issues and stopping to peer at us with chocolate brown eyes.
So campus squirrels captured my attention fast as a lonely freshman.
Almost daily, I’d send Snapchat videos of whatever squirrel activity I could find to my family back home, spamming our chat with videos of hungry squirrels, grumpy squirrels, leaping squirrels and bouncing squirrels. I could watch the squirrels and feel instantly happier; they seemed to be dropping capsules of dopamine on my head alongside the mouthfuls of walnuts.
Squirrels gave me something adorable to love, reminding me that even life away from home isn’t all that sad and forcing me to laugh.
In the years since, campus squirrels continue to clutch my heart in their over-stuffed cheeks. But this year, thinking about the upcoming presidential election has triggered a new anxiety in me.
Two weeks out from election day, the polls are dangerously close, and there is too much at stake.
There is nothing easy about realizing how many people in your nation are willing to sacrifice human rights for a man who speaks so proudly with greed and hate.
Often, when alone with my thoughts on walks to work or class, I’ve found myself trapped in a spiral of bewilderment and fear about the election. Squirrels have served as angels of stability in those moments, making me smile and clearing my mental storm.
I hope other scared voters – since we should all be scared and we should all be voting – can find something similarly constant and joyful.
October makes up the final full weeks we have before the most serious election our generation has witnessed, maybe that we’ll ever witness.
So as October closes, I’m going to vote. I’m going to call my family. I’m going to hug close my friends. And I’m going to visit the squirrels. October’s National Squirrel Month, after all.
Little sprites with the nutmeg paws, thank you for the innocent joy you unwittingly spread. As America makes its choice this November, we’ll be needing you.
