Spring Break
Spring break with some old friends
Anne Marie Merline
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: Opinion
There are many rituals concerning spring.
Some trace the roots back to the Greek and Roman days to help liberate those of mate-able age during the season of fertility.
There are the Pagan rites of the new season that gave way to the Christians seeking a more worship-oriented passage into spring, which did not quite work out.
In the modern era, spring rites during World War I gave way to the festivities that college students celebrate today. Through the decades of the late 20th century, the ebb and flow of self-indulgence -- however celebrated -- gives us all a week off in the middle of the semester.
Through it all, it is all about enjoying the liberation of the winter coat and the hope of Mother Nature's fertility in the coming months with people who we like spending time with.
The assignment that I give my students over spring break is to "sleep in, eat well and take time to visit family and friends." Because I require it of my students, I do the same.
Some head for warmer weather for a week of excess, some use the time to help serve others through service learning programs around the globe.
Spring break for me for many years has meant a trip to the colder climate of Minnesota to reconnect with my favorite boy in the littlest boy category, Theo. "TT," as I call him, is the oldest son of my friends Shannon and Jason.
I wish I could say that I met Shannon and Jason in college and that we had lots of spring break adventures together. In my mind, I imagine that they are and that we did.
They are the kind of friends that you would like to meet in college.
For the record, Shannon and Jason both went to college in Minnesota at Gustavus Adolfus. They met there as undergraduate students and eventually got married here in Fort Collins, where Jason sojourned as a graduate student in physics.
I went to college in New Hampshire at New England College. The only person that I kept as a friend was the man I married almost 23 years ago, a few months after I graduated with my B.A. in earth science education.
Some trace the roots back to the Greek and Roman days to help liberate those of mate-able age during the season of fertility.
There are the Pagan rites of the new season that gave way to the Christians seeking a more worship-oriented passage into spring, which did not quite work out.
In the modern era, spring rites during World War I gave way to the festivities that college students celebrate today. Through the decades of the late 20th century, the ebb and flow of self-indulgence -- however celebrated -- gives us all a week off in the middle of the semester.
Through it all, it is all about enjoying the liberation of the winter coat and the hope of Mother Nature's fertility in the coming months with people who we like spending time with.
The assignment that I give my students over spring break is to "sleep in, eat well and take time to visit family and friends." Because I require it of my students, I do the same.
Some head for warmer weather for a week of excess, some use the time to help serve others through service learning programs around the globe.
Spring break for me for many years has meant a trip to the colder climate of Minnesota to reconnect with my favorite boy in the littlest boy category, Theo. "TT," as I call him, is the oldest son of my friends Shannon and Jason.
I wish I could say that I met Shannon and Jason in college and that we had lots of spring break adventures together. In my mind, I imagine that they are and that we did.
They are the kind of friends that you would like to meet in college.
For the record, Shannon and Jason both went to college in Minnesota at Gustavus Adolfus. They met there as undergraduate students and eventually got married here in Fort Collins, where Jason sojourned as a graduate student in physics.
I went to college in New Hampshire at New England College. The only person that I kept as a friend was the man I married almost 23 years ago, a few months after I graduated with my B.A. in earth science education.
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