Spring semester is always so bitter-sweet. The days are bright and warm. Most students have pulled out their shorts and hammocks. Suddenly, everyone is outside all the time and music can be heard blaring out of windows while walking down Washington. Campus is flooded with high school students getting ready to decide their futures. There are final staff meetings and potlucks around every corner. Even with finals looming the sun has everyone in a good mood.
But unlike the promise of seeing everyone in a few weeks at the end of the fall, spring holds more uncertainty and change. Seniors are out by the seal taking graduation pictures in their cap and gown. New hires are suddenly appearing at meetings and on shadow shifts. Friends have to say goodbye for the long summer, getting scattered across Michigan or maybe even further in the pursuit of internships and summer jobs.
The sweet joy of walking out of class for the last time into the bright outdoors also comes with so many goodbyes to peers and professors you may never see again. I’ll have mixed feelings when I drive away from Mount Pleasant at the end of the week. Free from classes and finals, looking forward to the adventures of summer, but also fresh from saying goodbye to those closest to me. Feeling nostalgic for something that has only just ended. As I drive through the fields trying to make my way home, I’ll think about the promise of next year. I know the comfort of my house will welcome me back in the fall as I start my senior year. Things will be different, though. Friends will be graduated and or across the world studying abroad. Here in the spring, things are as they should be for the last time.