They say it’s spring!

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“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
When I was a kid spring only meant one thing: birthday time. I was born in April, and I’ve always found it kind of fitting that each year I get to reflect on my life at the same time that the trees are budding and little critters are awakening from hibernation.
This year I’ll be 24 and that seems, to me, to be a fully adult age. Like, last year when I turned 23, it didn’t feel very definitively grown-up. Then the life I’d been building for myself collapsed.
✓ I broke up with my long-term boyfriend.
✓ Completely changed careers.
✓ Got a dog.
✓ Cut off all my hair.
A year later, here I am approaching 24 and boyyyyy do I feel grown up now.
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When I was a kid having a spring birthday meant mostly indoor birthday parties, the kind where the children leave their shoes by the front door so they don’t track mud in everywhere. Spring is the best because it’s 40 degrees and you’re like “Yessss, I only need a sweater!!” but like, in October if it’s 40 you’ve already got your Parka out.

So, spring is all about optimism! And couldn’t we use a little? There’s color in the world again, the blossoms on the trees and the flowers popping up in the yard. All of which make me sneeze. And my eyes water. BUT THERE’S BEAUTY IN THE WORLD! So I can’t be all bitter about my allergies! I’m like Maria spinning around in the alps, to the sound of music and nature, except I’m also holding a bottle of Zyrtec.

I’m looking forward to being able to get outside with the pup again soon! This was her first winter ever and she was not feeling the snow. Of course now that it’s getting warmer she’s getting really excited about smelling all the places she forgot about that have been under 8 feet of snow.

Speaking of things that have been buried under 8 feet of snow, the melt we had last week has exposed the bones of a bicycle in my yard that I definitely forgot about.

Maybe 24 isn’t so grown up after all . . .

Abby Norman

About Abby Norman

Abby Norman is a Maine writer and journalist. She reports and manages social media for Midcoast Maine’s VStv-88 and is working on a memoir to be released in Spring of 2017. She’s represented by Peter Tallack. She is a 2015 Stanford Medicine X ePatient Scholar, an advocate and speaker on endometriosis, foster care and autism. She is a member in good standing of The Society for Professional Journalists and the National Writer’s Union. She lives in Camden with her dog, Whimsy.