Finally, no more snow! April is here, which means that we can start putting away our winter coats, hats, gloves, scarves, and boots. We may have lost an hour of sleep due to daylight savings, but now the day lasts longer, so we don’t have to worry about it being dark outside at 5:00 in the afternoon. Being outside later will be far simpler.

COVID has kept us in for a year, but it feels like it’s been twenty. Just a simple walk outside is nice because it lets us get fresh air in our lungs. Fall and winter are enjoyable with all of the holidays and looking at the beautiful, fallen snow on the ground; however, once cars begin to drive over it and it gets shoveled, it becomes just big piles of slushy dirt. In the spring, we can look forward to more sunny days and gorgeous flowers, or trees growing on the plants that have been dead all winter.

With the weather getting warmer, we have the ability to enjoy things so much more, such as walking around Tanger Outlets or Huntington Village without having to wear puffy coats, driving to the city and going to central park to have a picnic, riding bikes, playing basketball in the park, or just driving around with all the windows rolled down and music playing. Additionally, a lot more restaurants have to make people eat outside due to COVID, so at least it’s not thirty-eight degrees out anymore.

Summer, imagine it: just two months away and the sun is blazing. Honestly, I personally miss the eighty-degree and up weather outside. Everyone knows when summer is coming, not just by the weather changing, but through a gut feeling. When I was a kid, I knew summer was here when my friends and I heard Mr. Frosty drive down the street with music playing. When baseball season started for my friends, I would go to their games and watch them play on their little league teams. Moreover, my sister and I would watch our dad play baseball with his own team and we would ask him when the game was going to be over! It wasn’t exactly how an eight and a twelve-year-old wanted to spend four hours of their Sunday mornings.

Without the worries of school and with a lot more free time, so many people make new memories during the summer. I asked some Whitman students about their favorite childhood summer memories. According to Jeylin Garcia Ortez, “My favorite memory was when I was a kid and was going to parties, beaches, and amusement parks!” Valeria Bruzual commented that “It was during the summer when all of my family got together, and went to the beach together and rented a house, so we kind of had a little party, and it was a lot of fun.” Cortney LaBella also described how her favorite memory of the summer was when she went to Disney with her family.

Summer is the time to make endless memories with friends, go on late-night drives, experience the feeling of not having to get up early for school the next day, go on sleepovers, indulge in movie nights, and swim in pools or at the beach. That’s not all: pool parties, boat days, going fishing, hearing or seeing the fireworks on the Fourth of July, getting tanned, going surfing, riding a jet ski, getting to go away for vacation, going to fairs and festivals, going to barbeques… There is so much that we can do in just three months!

Spring is here and summer is so close! The primary negative about spring is the seasonal allergies that many people experience, but hopefully, allergy medicine can help so that everyone will be able to enjoy the beautiful weather that summer and spring will bring us.