It’s been a long and particularly cruel winter, with freezing temperatures and foot after foot of snow that’s made me despair of ever seeing springtime again. But during spring break, the snow has melted in earnest, the sun is now out until seven pm, and the first lone daffodil showed its face on campus, braving the elements alone just outside of Welch.
Consider This: 03/23/2026
The daffodil in question, photographed last week: by the time you’re reading this, more may well have opened!
Every autumn, the grounds crew plants a host of bulbs throughout campus to slowly grow underground, sprout upwards, and flower to herald the spring. I like thinking about these daffodils as a sign of hope because they’re not something truly random: they’re planted and cultivated deliberately. It’s a good way to think about how we can plant our own hope and the quiet work that might be needed to nurture and grow it in times of cold and darkness.