Anyone living in Abilene, or Texas for that matter knows you can’t rely on the weather to tell you when spring has arrived. Instead, I learned early on to find alternative methods. In elementary school I always knew spring was here when we would fly kites.

Once a year at Taylor Elementary School we had kite day. As I recall, it wasn’t an event that was bound to a calendar. Instead, we always had kite day on the first day that felt like spring.

In preparation for kite day, my parents would take my sisters and me to Wal-Mart and let us pick out any kite we wanted. Lucky for us, Wal-Mart had an excellent selection of kites back then. We always skipped over the Spiderman and other “boy kites” and found the ones designed with Jasmine or Minnie Mouse accompanied with bright colors.

The next morning we would take the kites to school and anxiously wait for the perfect afternoon. When the time came for kite day festivities to begin, we would line up, kites in hand and make our way to the large grass field behind the track.

We quickly assembled the plastic kites and began our attempts to fly the kites in the wild, West Texas wind. Typically, my best friend would hold my kite while I unraveled the twine. Then, she would throw the kite in the air while I prayed for the wind to catch it and thrust it into the sky.

Once my kite was in the air, I felt my body relax. I breathed in the fresh spring air, looked across the street at ACU and dreamed of the day I’d be having fun in college. Then, kite day would end and we would gather what was left of our kites and get ready to go home. It was simply wonderful.

Now, I’m in college instead of dreaming about it and I long for those days of kite flying. I long for the days where my biggest worry was what I would find in my lunch box and which substitute teacher our class would be forced to endure on Friday.

College life can be so stressful, and often it is hard to see the big picture of why I’m here. It is equally hard to relax, have fun and enjoy a spring afternoon.

I want to feel carefree. I want to run around in perfect weather with my friends. I want to see my dreams ahead of me and know I can achieve them in the future. After reminiscing about my favorite elementary activity, I’ve concluded that in order to function and accomplish my goals, I need to fly more kites, up in the atmosphere, up where the air is clear.