During the fall semester, I started experiencing a lot of issues with my mental health. It got to the point where I didn’t want to go to class, and I didn’t want to do any schoolwork. Honestly, I didn’t want to do anything at all. I just wanted to stay in bed all day and disappear into the blankets. It was a heavy kind of sadness — the kind that sits on your chest and makes everything feel harder than it should be. Looking back, I realized how much the season itself was affecting me.
Winter has a way of stripping the world of its color. The days get shorter. The sky feels permanently gray. You don’t even realize how much the lack of sunlight messes with you and how much brightness is truly gone. Seasonal depression is real, and it hits a lot of people without them fully understanding why they suddenly feel drained, unmotivated or disconnected from everything. The cold makes it harder to go outside, and walking with a big coat on does not help either. It’s like the world slows down, but not in a peaceful way — more like everything becomes dull. When you’re already struggling, winter makes those struggles feel 10 times louder.
When spring comes around, it feels like such a relief. It’s not just the weather getting warmer — it’s the sense that life starts, and the world gets brighter. The days are longer, the sun shows up again and even the air feels easier to breathe. Spring makes you want to get out of bed, go outside, do something, be something. The world that felt frozen suddenly feels alive again, and in some ways, it makes you feel alive again, too. I think there is healing in seeing color come back into the world after months of gray. It reminds you that nothing stays cold or dark forever.
Comparing the two seasons, winter feels like a weight, and spring feels like a reset. Winter closes in on you, while spring opens everything back up. Winter makes you survive the days, but spring makes you look forward to them. Even though seasonal depression still hits hard, knowing that brighter days are coming makes it a little easier to hold on.
Honestly, campus doesn’t help during the winter — everything looks dead. The grass turns a dull, muddy brown and the trees are bare. The buildings look harsher and nastier. Nobody hangs out outside, so the whole campus feels empty — like it’s holding its breath. Even walking to class feels gloomy. Cathy feels somber. There’s no life — just people rushing to get out of the cold. It’s wild how a place that feels warm and lively in other seasons can suddenly feel depressing and isolating. Being surrounded by that grayness every single day makes it harder to stay motivated, like the environment tries to work against you.
That’s why spring feels like such a relief — it’s the sense that life starts returning. The flowers are growing. The color is alive and back. Spring brings a good mindset — I always feel so much better waking up knowing the day will not be so tiresome, so gray, just so ugly. It makes me want to get up, go to classes and be productive.
In the end, spring is a season that brings joy. After months of cold, grey and miserable winter, we have energy that shifts from a moody time. The world warms up, and we as a community get to feel better. That is why — even if winter feels so long — spring will always be worth waiting for.