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Being Young: Letting spring in

Are we biased against spring?
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Marlowe Evans.

Sometimes ‘stop and smell the roses’ just doesn’t quite cut it.

Taking time to enjoy nature is something that is often overlooked, shrugged off as something to do when there’s more time. Well, it’s spring in Maple Ridge, and there’s no time like the present.

All clichés aside, spring is a beautiful time of year, that’s often brushed off as an in-between season. It’s not as warm as summer (or at least, it’s not supposed to be), it doesn’t have the excitement of fall, or the frigid temper of winter.

Often, it’s just described as ‘wet.’ Sure, it does rain fairly often during the spring, but guess what? The April showers have passed, and it’s May flower season. Tulips are out. Robins are nesting. It’s lovely.

And you should look at it. Yes, you specifically. Go outside and look at how actually lovely spring can be. Yes, work is important, and, no, your game probably won’t win itself, but look: there are leaves on the trees. Do you know how precious that is?

After living most of the year in New Brunswick, where there was snow on the ground in October, and there was still snow on the ground when I flew home two weeks ago, I have a new-found appreciation for luxuries like leaves, rain that isn’t freezing, and temperatures above six degrees.

I wanted to share my new-found enthusiasm, because I, too, used to shrug off spring as wet and unexciting. I’ve grown up since then, and realized that puddle-jumping is a sport that can’t easily be played in every province unless you’re willing to do the Titanic play and share the puddle with icebergs.

The Titanic play was fairly successful when I played in the eastern league, but now that I’ve been traded back home, I can trade my Sorrells for rubber boots.

The point is, we’re willing to stop and smell the roses in almost every other season. We’ll go to the beach, walk under the autumn leaves, make a snowman. So why can’t we enjoy spring? Are we really any busier, or do we just value the season less?

READ ALSO: ‘Golden period,’ after exams.

I say, we, as a society, are biased against spring, and for no good reason. Do you know why? There’s no better time to stop and smell the roses than in the season where roses first bloom.

Even as I’m writing this, there are birds chirping in my garden. One kind, and I’m not sure what they are (and don’t tell me, it would ruin the mystery), I call ‘tea’s ready’ birds. I have some friends who argue they’re called ‘cheeseburger’ birds, but I think we can agree that on a brisk spring morning with dew in the grass and sweet birds at the window, that a nice tea is a more favourable choice.

So make a cup of tea before summer makes it too hot to enjoy. Sit at the window and listen to the birds, the rain falling softly against the glass.

Being young is about energy and wildness. That’s what this season is about. So let spring in. The tea’s ready birds are calling.

Marlowe Evans is a student at the University of New Brunswick from Maple Ridge who writes about youth issues.