Naomi Washington
Staff Reporter
Fresh breezes, flowers, baby animals, vitamin D, and cheerful Americans. All this because the Earth finally made a 23.5-degree vertical tilt towards the sun. I’m talking about springtime if you haven’t noticed yet.
The famous showdown between the vernal equinox that causes spring and groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil took place on February 2nd. Groundhog Day is the cross-quarter day about halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. This means that no matter what the groundhog sees, the earth has traveled about one half of the way between winter and spring. Thankfully, Punxsutawney didn’t see his shadow so the spring season began on March 20th. The days will keep getting longer and the earth will slowly begin to warm.
During the long, rainy, winter season, the only thing we were thankful for about winter was the school days off and all the sleep we caught up on during the holiday breaks.
S.A.D. is a type of depression that starts in the early fall and continues through the end of the winter months. It has similar symptoms to regular depression except the main way to treat this kind of depression is by undergoing light therapy. This treatment involves sitting a few feet from a special light fixture each morning for about an hour to change the chemicals in your brain linked to your mood. Science experiments proved that the method helps, but there is nothing like soaking up real vitamin D in the warmer months.
Students at Atholton agreed with these conclusions about unavoidable mood changes. “Yeah, I think I’m just sadder during the winter,” said sophomore Ally Clearfield. “I just get happier when the suns out during the spring.”
About ten million Americans jumped for joy as well knowing that their Seasonal Affective Disorder came to an end.
Life will go so much smoother now that winter is over. Getting up for school in the morning will become somewhat easier and outdoor activities can begin. Astronomy may not agree but for us, it seems like the sunlight will creep in a little earlier and go away much later than it does in the winter. This weather change may even constitute discovering a new outdoor hobby like tree camping. Have you ever heard of it? Neither have I, but that’s more of a reason to get outside and do it.
The only downside to spring is the disturbance of allergy season. According to Atholton sophomore Deven Daniels, allergies do make it difficult to fully enjoy the commencement of spring’s warm weather. Fifty million Americans suffer from a pollen allergy and it triggers right when pollen starts producing in plants.
Pollen allergies make people want to rip their itching nose off and rub their red eyes until the burning sensation goes away, but that still does not stop them from embracing the beauty of nature.
Despite the fun, holiday season, wintertime is hard to take pleasure in when it’s so cold. Anyone would agree that everything seems a bit more possible and attainable when it is sunny and warm. You can now kickstart going down the pathway toward that goal you’ve neglected all winter. Maybe you forgot, but the gym is still right down the street and your membership has been collected an immense amount of dust for months. It is time to stop blowing off your goals to sit under a blanket to binge watch Lifetime movies and get started.
Each aspect of spring brings Americans its own set of joy. Seasonal Affective Disorder is a hard ordeal to shake off when it isn’t a breezy, sixty-eight-degree fun town outside, but now that it’s here, you’ll have all the motivation to walk a dog or get some weird chores done. Girls loved posing in the freezing snow with small puppies for a few hundred likes on an Instagram post this winter, but the icy sidewalks, chapped lips, and itchy sweaters got old really quick.
atholtonnews.com 