Hello again, sinners. I am positive that all students are relieved to leave behind the winter blues and start afresh for spring time which commenced on February 1.
There is such a huge feeling of unperturbed happiness at seeing the newly blossomed flowers, sneak peeks from the sun and trees gaining back their green colours again.
Personally, my spring time is busy doing a deep spring clean at home and on the hunt for a new job as well as trying to be kind to my mental health on my bad days; being an adult takes a lot, doesn’t it?
It is all a learning curve though and a new year would not be a new year without a few new hiccups.
It is especially hard trying to juggle numerous interviews while you are still working, but break times are a saviour for that until you miss having a full hour to rest and eat as opposed to rushing to different venues across the city centre. It’s all fun. So much fun. Really.
However, there is numerous things to look forward to in spring time alone that are truly fun and each celebration is falling on the calendar one date after the other.
Valentine’s Day is fast approaching for the famous February 14 and retailers are showing off cute little teddy bears and scrumptious chocolates that you can gift your friends or partners with, and there was I, buying secret bits before February even started.
My boyfriend and I religiously tell each other not to be buying too much, but neither of us listen. Ever. A few words of advice: one does not need another to spend Valentine’s Day with, and you can choose between your friends or yourself, but not everyone needs a love interest. I used to buy the biggest box of chocolates and devour them in the comfort of my bed while watching a rom-com.
We are all going to be spoiled with sweet things as Pancake Tuesday falls on February 13, the day before all things hearts.
One must take part in the tradition of eating pancakes, I eat them for the entire day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If I make them at home, I love drowning them in butter and sugar or with Nutella if I am feeling fancy or I will take a visit to Java’s Creperie in Abbeygate Street for some sweet and savoury crepes complete with either a fizzy beverage, hot drink, or glass of wine.
The remainder of spring time festivities is shared amongst March and April; March being host to St Patricks Day on March 17 and April letting the Easter Bunny to deliver as much chocolate eggs as possible before summer season kickstarts in May.
Nowadays, the little things in life are what I look forward to; writing about my day in my journal, deciding what book I would like to read next, what delicious dinner to cook in the evenings, preferably pasta based and saving up for a weekend getaway to Cavan to a beautiful castle location because I haven’t been away since two years ago in Ireland and I haven’t been abroad since 2013 and to quote Lizzo, “It’s about damn time”.
We need to pay attention to the little things, all the annual celebrations are just added extras.
Rachel Garvey is a Co-Editor for Features for Student Independent News for the year 2023/24. She works full-time, but dedicates her free time to writing and being involved in SIN. Rachel has been a contributor to SIN since 2017.