O Spring!
Sergey-Pesterev-tJnqdD5sO_M-unsplash It feels like just yesterday I was spending Christmas vacation, digging out the joys of the year’s end buried in winter’s snow—and yet here we are, already in May. Though I’ve been counting the days, fully aware that spring was on its way, I didn’t realize the time had already carried me to May. What cycle, what chain of associations is holding my thoughts hostage? The campus in May would often be alive with festivals blending premature daytime heat and the chill that settled in overnight. Protests—once casually referred to as “demos”—were a natural part of the lives of young university students who lived in that same time. They were weary, burdened youth who carried within them countless questions about life itself. The powder of tear gas buried in the leaves and corners of the campus would dissolve and run whenever it rained, bringing on unseasonal tears. We accepted it all as if it were the most natural thing,...