Yes, the temperatures are still well below freezing, and yes, summer may seem nothing more than an impossible dream. But, in the coming days, as you scurry from one side of campus to the other wrapped from head to toe in winter wools and turning your face from the snows and winds that batter you, remember: There’s a reason it’s called spring semester.

Classes will be returning to session, and, in a few short months—which’ll pass quicker than you might think—the fragrant smells of new growth, the chirpings of song-birds and the melting of drifts will betray a hint of spring in the air. This may seem ridiculous talk now, as temperatures continue to dip and the sidewalks and streets don their perennial slush-coats, but the start of second semester does in no small part bring a grain of hope to these often cloudy times.

And this is why we all love Ames so much, right? We are treated to the full experience of four distinct seasons. Summer, fall, winter and then spring each take their turn, and neither is given a smaller or larger slice of the pie than any other. It can be difficult to remember this in the depths of a cold, long February, but such is simply the realities of spring semester.

So it might be difficult to get excited for your new classes, but go ahead and do your best. It’s important to get started on the right foot, as the weather will be turning just as finals come around—making for an uneven motivation to study—and oftentimes the first part of the semester is exactly when you most need to build a relationship with your fellow classmates and professors, to ensure success is the latter half.  

And yes, there will be expensive textbooks to buy, there will be hours of listening to professors dwell upon syllabus minutiae, there will be freezing walks in between classes, there will be wet boots and coats, there will be biting winds and there will be classrooms located in the basement of this or that building that are impossible to locate. But with every new semester there are new possibilities. New friends to meet, new passions to find and new successes to make.

And—after all—that’s what the new year is all about. Because although 2016 was for some not a year to remember, but a year to forget—2017 is still fair game.