Warm weather is finally here, and outside of the allergic sneezes and the spring colds when you find the time to take in what nature has to offer it oftentimes feels incredible. The air is fresh and warm, you can wear T-shirts again, the animals and the flowers and the trees have come back, Game of Thrones has returned, and all is right with the world. I heard someone joke that you could go and bomb a test and then come out and feel the warmth and not worry about it. In a way, this is very, very true. The atmosphere, although not conveniently in November for Thanksgiving fans, is a reminder to be grateful for the world in which we live.
Nothing makes me feel more grateful to be living than taking a walk in the Spring. I feel so interconnected with the world around me, drawing it in, breathing in the newness of it all. I am not Eleni Fafoutis, I am merely apart of this big and beautiful world, and I am happy to make as large or as little of a mark on it as fate might allow me. Spring reminds me of new beginnings and bittersweet ends. As the school year draws to a close, I look back on my struggles and my trials and am grateful for the friends and opportunities I have found along the way. Furthermore, I am reminded of past disappointments, such as college or job rejections, rewards, and scholarships I lost, tests I've failed, familial struggles I've faced. Yet I also realize that the sun has come up again on this beautiful day and that everything turned out alright. Everything that happens is meant to be (or at least I'm a strong believer in this), and a gorgeous spring day is a reminder that I've turned out just fine.
If you're at UVA, pick a nice day and take a stroll down to the Lawn. Absorb it all, the Rotunda, the rooms, with their doors wide open, the people on the Lawn, go to the libraries and take in the beautiful trees outside of Alderman. Go into the stacks and admire the oldness - and the newness - of the books there. Take a deep breath outside of Brown College and enjoy the shade there, and perhaps hike around O'Hill. If you're not at UVA, pick some of the most beautiful spots on your Grounds (campus) and make the most of it. Spring, like so many things, is fleeting. Enjoy it while you can.
