Picture this: you wake up in a perfectly warm room with a peak of sunshine coming in from the blinds and it’s not a struggle to get out of bed for what feels like the first time in months. The air is crisp and a feeling of monotony has broken as you get up with your best foot put forward.
Spring is the best season in Canada, not simply because of what it is, but also what it represents. Spring is the classic new beginning, but it also brings healing and reflecting — all of which, unique to spring, make it the best season out of the four here in Canada.
Spring is often associated with the concept of a new beginning as it marks the beginning of warmer and longer days that break the gruelling cold and dark months of January and February.
Winter in general tends to have adverse effects on those exposed to it. Vitamin D deficiency is rampant in Canada due to the lack of sun exposure and is a major contributing factor to seasonal depression.
So naturally, spring can be easily seen as a saviour from the lows of winter. Given how low those lows tend to be, spring sunlight almost always feels more rejuvenating than summer sunlight, in a similar way to how the first glass of water in the morning almost always feels more refreshing than any other.
In this way, spring can represent healing. It’s rejuvenating and, for Canadian university students, it’s in-between a unique period. Early spring, namely March and the first half of April, brings students a literal breath of fresh air from the stuffy and miserable winter months.
For those blessed with windows in their seminars or lecture halls, there’s a strong sense of relief in noticing the sun setting later and later into the day. The literal fresh air that comes when the heaters shut off, becoming less painful to open your room’s windows, also takes away stress. And the extra energy that comes with it all means that the second semester is a lot easier to handle.
The second phase of spring — from the middle of April until the end of May — brings a period of time best described as no-man’s land for students. Most are wrapping up their exams but still have a solid week or two before they begin any summer jobs, projects or spring/summer semester.
This small break in the flow of life is what really makes spring special. It serves as a quiet, almost reflective period, where for the first time in months there’s no major school projects on your mind.
In a sense, it asks you to take it easy on yourself, sleep in, feel the stress dissipate from your body and lazily reflect on how your year went and what clearly worked and did not work for you.
Spring is the best season for more than just the weather. Spring represents the classic ideals of a new beginning, but for the Canadian university student, spring is also a time of healing and reflection from another year of life.