Hi readers! Welcome back! Read along, and share in my excitement of the long winter season at Amherst finally beginning to shift to a beautiful spring!
The never ending winter so it seems… is finally ending! This past week, I was on a FaceTime call with my grandmother, as I was walking back to my residence hall, where I was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of campus being different. I took a glance around at my surroundings and told her, “the grass on the quad can be seen again!” I flipped the camera on my FaceTime call, so that she could also share in my joy.
Previous to this moment, there has been snow on the ground since the first big snowfall in January. The ground being covered in snow, ice, and puddles of water, meant that I had been wearing my snow boots and warm jacket with a fuzzy hood for multiple days at a time. This was to allow myself to make the journey around campus in a safe and warm way…even though I have almost slopped multiple times and have felt a chill to my bones (is beside the point).
The snow in Massachusetts is simply different. Being from Santa Fe, New Mexico, with an elevation of almost 7,000 feet, I’m used to it being cold and having snow storms, but I’m not used to the snow remaining on the ground for so long. Usually back home, the snow will melt in a day or two once it falls, but here in Amherst, the snow will remain on the ground for months. Now, you can begin to see why I was so excited to see the grass once again.
In the past two weeks, I have been pleasantly surprised to wake up to warmer weather, the pathways of campus beginning to dethaw, the sounds of birds chirping in the trees throughout campus, and the subtle shedding of layers of clothing by Amherst students. These are all signs of spring coming soon!
Winter is a very beautiful time on the Amherst campus, as memorial hill, and buildings on campus are constantly covered in beautiful powdered sugar. Even though this romanticized winter feeling of campus is nice, the spring season at Amherst is when students begin to come out of hibernation.
Students begin to sit on picnic blankets and sunbathe on the first-year quad again, throw frisbees to each other, and study outside. It’s always so fun to see students enjoy their time outside, as we all prepare for the mad dash of finals, move out, and summer. We all remind each other to live a little more in the moment and make sure that we make the most out of our time on campus and with friends before we don’t see them for the next couple of months. I look forward to experiencing this feeling of the wonderful season of spring on the Amherst campus again soon.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about Amherst, or would like to talk further, email me at cjaeger27@amherst.edu.