Spring is budding on the St. Michael’s campus and students are beginning to bloom right alongside nature. Walking around campus, especially during finals season, I find it easy to get caught up in to-do lists and lose sight of the small beauties like the first bud on a tree or the small flowers that bloom in grassy areas. As the weather begins to warm up, I feel the presence of new beginnings and a new perspective on the world. Spring cleaning is in full swing and I am cleaning out my schedule to make room for more activities that bring me joy. The awakening of spring to me feels like the warm glow of sun on my face. On days when the sun is shining, I take a moment to just stop in the midst of my schedule and feel the warmth. I can’t help but appreciate that this is my first “normal” spring semester since COVID shut everything down in 2020. As a junior, I experienced my first P-day, earth fest and first full lacrosse season of my college career. These photographs I took from the scenes of campus exemplify what I feel when spring comes around and how I see nature as an avenue to see life clearly. How does spring make you feel?
On a typical day, I usually take one look at the brick buildings and purple flags around campus and then go right back to looking at my phone or at the path. The coming of spring has made me look up at the sky more often to see something other than the white haze that engulfs the sky during winter. The clouds seem to dance in the spring wind, and make shapes that I can only appreciate if for a moment, I just stop.
Amidst the chaos, there will always be a calm. There is something so special for students to be able to study outside. A change from the ordinary, a desk to a picnic blanket. When I am studying outside on a sunny day, in a chair or on a blanket, even at an outside desk, no matter how busy my life seems there will always be a sense of calm within the sunlit grass and the blue sky above.
The first bloom of tulip leaves means the first of many days to bathe in the sun in a lawn chair outside. These are some of the first signs that spring is in the air and these exciting occurrences begin to happen only when the grass gets greener and the sun washes away the cold winter air. Seeing the first tulip buds come up signals to me to pull out my Birkenstocks and my bucket hat and get ready to lounge outside because nature is beginning to bloom once again.
Flowers give the impression of new beginnings, but you cannot have the flowers without rain. The rain that is so underappreciated by many gives life to the bulbs waiting beneath the soil. The way they blossom gives meaning to an openness that I feel every spring. Flowers are the face of spring, the centerpiece at a table, gifts for loved ones, and an accent for a garden. I feel a connection to how flowers always will grow towards the sun. Whenever there is a day with minimal clouds in the sky, I feel as if I grow towards the sun to let go of my worries, my to-do lists, and begin to bloom with nature.
