Hey Ryerson,
For those of you who survived St. Patrick’s Day, I hope you enjoyed it safely. We can only pray your boss doesn’t see those photos of you dressed as a drunken leprechaun that are circulating around Facebook and Instagram. As you might remember last week I offered up some advice to enjoying your St. Patrick’s Day weekend, so with the first official day of spring arriving just three days later (what’s with the cold weather? It was 22 degrees this time last year), I can only lend my feelings as to why the end of winter is even more splendid than St. Paddy’s Day.
For starters, this week we all seem to be buried in a giant pile of research papers and brutal assignments as we quickly approach the end school semester.
Student anxiety is at an all-time high and we’re all hyped up on coffee and energy drinks, doubting we will survive this agonizing stretch to The End.
It’s becoming obvious if you’re about to graduate that y’all are adults now. Your parents are cutting you off from a steady cash flow as they gleefully smile and say “Welcome to the Real World Kid.” Fear not children of tomorrow, just like the winter turns to spring, it’s time to take pleasure in this change of scenery and embrace anew!
So I will tell you why, despite the lack of sleep and ‘round the clock homework, that this time of year is so awesome.
1. This is the time of year when I get to bust out all the clothes taking a winter vacation in the back of my closet. Goodbye heavy sweaters and toques, hello sunglasses and tank tops…my spring wardrobe is so colourful and I miss it during the winter! Plus I will shamelessly admit that I’m excited to finally show a little skin. It’s a beautiful thing.
2. Daylight savings time earlier this month means it’s still light outside at the end of the day when I’m Go Training it back to Hamilton. Catching rays can definitely affect your mood so it’s nice to have those extra hours of sunlight.
3. Blue Jays Home Opener!!!!!!!! #LetsGoBlueJays #LoveThisTeam
The Jays did quite a shopping spree during the off-season acquiring Jose Reyes, Mark Buerhle, Josh Johnson, R.A. Dickey, Emilio Bonifacio , Melky Cabrera, the return of manager John Gibbons…and so forth (hope I didn’t miss anyone). The optimism for those who were here before is indisputable- ask any long-time Toronto Blue Jays fan if they’re excited about the upcoming season and the answer is an obvious YES! JUST IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES! So if you were lucky enough to get your hands on tickets for the sold out home opener, which is now less than two weeks away, congratulations because those tickets are a hot item. I’m just thankful that Paul Molitor came to me in a dream and told me to buy a flex pack two days before “The Trade.” Check out who arrived in the mail yesterday:
4. Outdoor exercise – Being stuck in a crowded gym sucks! With warm weather just around the corner (it’s coming, I can feel it) we can finally dodge the gym and go for a run or bike ride in the outdoors. Not to mention taking in all the scenery of budding cherry blossoms and sprouting flowers is so much nicer than running on a treadmill indoors.
5. Patio beers. I am definitely a fan. Goodbye dingy dive bar hello Coronas under the umbrella.
6. There’s no better way to shake off the winter blues than taking in the sweet smell of flowers and hearing birds-a-chirping. These signs of life are a wonderful reminder that it’s good to be alive.
7. Summer concert tours are approaching – Musicians must hate the cold too. I feel like all the good concerts only come to Canada during the spring/summer season. Whatever type of music, there’s a much better concert selection during the warm weather and it should be a good year for music. Going to concerts is probably my favourite reason why I love to say goodbye to winter.
8. Bike season is back – I have a ton of friends who ride motorcycles and while I’m too broke to afford that luxury, I occasionally get to ride on the back of theirs. Something about cruising on a bike is completely exhilarating and awesome. When you’re looking out the window in a car you’re merely taking in the scenery, but riding on a motorcycle feels like you’re part of it. Yu can bet that when the first signs of warm weather hit Toronto, the bikes are out in full force.
Well fellow students, despite the massive workload we’re currently buried in there are still a zillion reasons why this time of year is awesome.
Perhaps the best reason is that spring is an early promise that the best is yet to come. Warm weather puts us all in a good mood. With temperatures hovering around the zero mark today it might not feel like spring is here quite yet, after all the first day of spring was only yesterday, but just knowing that I won’t have to worry about winter for the next seven months…that makes me cheerful. (And very Canadian don’t you think?)
