And the Snowy Spring Semester Begins

Welcome back to campus everyone! And I wish you all luck as we begin this spring semester (possibly my last semester is school ever…creepy when you’ve been in school since you were 2 years old, huh?)!

Personally, I always thought the idea of the “spring semester” was a little weird. The fall semester seems to make a bit more sense…even when we start school and it’s still hot or a bit summery, the leaves start changing pretty soon afterward and the fall weather begins to define the semester. Fall semesters simply feel…fall-y. But the spring semester always feels like winter for way too long. Not only do we begin when it still feels like a different season, but that winter weather often carries over until what feels like practically the end of the semester, defining it with cold rainy days instead of growing flowers. What I usually remember from spring semesters aren’t those last few days of luke-warmth, but the cold…the writing of papers while covered in a blanket.

I think the one time I felt differently about this was my senior year of college (spring ’09), when it got so warm by April that I even got a few sunburns from reading outside. That definitely cancelled out the cold. But how often does that happen?

I’m sure I’d feel differently if I was from somewhere without such defined seasons (you guys who aren’t from around here should tell me if I sound crazy to you), but calling this semester “spring” when we can still hope for snow days until almost the last month of school never made total sense to me. Then again, what else would we call it?

In any case, like the New York Postal Service, we grad. students will not stop working no matter what the weather. "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." Even on snow days, we keep at it from home. Perhaps not as swiftly as the mailmen but...you get the idea.

So I guess it's back to school, and back to those "appointed rounds."

Alex