SPRING IS MY FAVORITE SEASON. To me, it represents a time of reflection and renewal. Everything seems bright and fresh. It’s been a long tradition in my family (and likely with yours) to do “spring cleaning.” I have clear memories of my grandmother pulling out her “what-nots” from the coffee table and curio shelf and filling the sink with soap and water. It was my job to wash and dry them before carefully handing them to her to put back into place. We’d leave the windows open for a nice breeze to fill the air as we cleaned out closets, put back winter clothes and pulled out summer clothes— leaving out a sweater or jacket out for that “cool snap” that was bound to come back before Easter.

These are all feelings of nostalgia that I can visualize in an instant. Much like the feeling I get when I’m on the Plains. Even though the campus has changed with new buildings, it’s still familiar and I get a sense of reflection and renewal when I’m there. I like to take a walk along the path I used to take from “The Hill” dorms across campus to the engineering buildings, recall the late nights in the library and in the labs and reflect on what I know now that I had no clue about then: that my time at Auburn was a big part of charting my course in life.