Whoever said that it’s boring to talk about the weather clearly never lived in New England. Ever since we had our first taste of spring back in February, Mother Nature has been changing her mind like a dog with too many toys.

“You’ve been enjoying the 50 degree weather?” she asks us. “That’s great, but don’t you think it would be just as fun to get two feet of snow tomorrow?”

“Not really,” we reply.

“Oh, don’t be silly,” she says, and does it anyway.

I’ll admit that this week’s weather has me hopeful again, but I’m certainly not foolish enough to declare with certainty that spring is actually here. I remember a year in my childhood when my sister and I played on top of five-foot snowpiles on Easter, so I doubt we’re out of the woods just yet.

Still, it’s nice to enjoy the warmer weather while it lasts and to picture the campus buzzing with life again. While I’ve always said that I prefer to shiver rather than die of heatstroke, the beginning of summer is definitely an invigorating time of year. The months of cabin fever fade and the quad becomes host to the quintessential college scenes once more, with students lounging on the grass or chucking frisbees at each other’s faces.

Unfortunately, with the pleasant temperatures and sunshine comes a new distraction from doing schoolwork. It can be very difficult to sit in a stuffy classroom with the sounds of laughter and skateboards floating in through the open windows and not spend half of the lecture imagining the feel of the sun on your skin.

I think that we have an interesting dilemma at JSC with the timing of our semester: our week-long breaks might be welcome stress relief, but they push the end of our semester further into the properly nice part of spring. Whether this means that you don’t have time to get in that first hike of the season or have to watch friends from other schools do summer-y things without you, it can be a bit disheartening to realize that you still have a month of classes left.

Maybe some people appreciate the burst of vitality and use the energy to power them through their work, in which case I offer them sincere congratulations for their determination. For those who don’t quite manage that, I would suggest taking your work outside if you can, or just stopping every so often to take a quick walk in the Vitamin D.

Campus is really a great place to be in the spring. The semester is drawing to a close, and for those graduating in May, this might be a final chance to enjoy the verve and community of the JSC quad in April.

This last month of school might stressful and difficult, but it can also be a lot of fun. I think we should all remember to take what advantage we can of the weather while it’s here and collectively cross our fingers for the sun to stick around in the coming weeks.

Happy spring, everyone!

—Cayla Fronhofer, Editor-in-Chief