It’s finally March and every male on campus is back in athletic shorts and no jacket, so it must officially be spring. I bet all of your professors have mentioned how nice it is outside and told you to go enjoy the weather, even though they probably said that inside State Farm Hall. As we enter the second half of the semester, here are five ways to leave behind your winter depression.
1. Take a daily walk. The cold is no longer an excuse not to go outside. A nice walk can quickly turn a terrible day into a terrific one. If you have an hour and a half between Finite Math and Spanish, consider hitting the quad. If your walk is three minutes before classes begin or four minutes after they end, you might even run into other students. If not, you have the freedom to roam the empty campus. You can also walk the Constitution Trail, starting down the street from campus and ending in Uptown Normal. But beware, you will probably run into students from other universities in town.
2. Try a new spring-themed recipe. Even though the dorm kitchens won’t provide any help, try your hand at cooking to start spring off. I bet everyone on your floor will be grateful for the free scents. Chef up some avocado toast or bruschetta. You can even try something so crazy, you know it won’t work out. College is really all about the experience, not the outcome.
3. Clean your room. Spring cleaning is essential to starting the season off on the right foot. Dorms are tight, and the smaller the room, the bigger the mess. If you have a roommate, keeping your half of the room clean is a requirement, anyways. You do not want to be the topic of your roommate’s conversation with her friends. Unless that is your goal, then being messy will bring you one step closer.
4. Learn something new. With a liberal arts education, students are taught about many different subjects, but there are outside sources, where you can learn even more. The McLean County Museum of History located on North Main Street is a great place to learn more about our college town. IWU students even get in free every Tuesday when they present their ID. There’s also a Harriet Fuller Rust Discovery Room to see what life was like for early settlers in McClean, which is nothing like our campus’ Harriet Fuller Rust House. Luckily for students, there’s running water and electricity in Harriet, and that alone already better than the Discovery Room.
5. Go to Arnold Health Services. It might not be fun, but you should probably make at least one stop to see the folks at Arnold Health Services before you start sneezing in a couple weeks— if you haven’t started already. Do everyone in your classes a favor and get your allergy medication early this year. Afterwards, you can sit in the grass in the mini-quad without sniffling at your job later.
Take advantage of all that Bloomington has to offer now that you can go outside without freezing solid.