In a way, the things that are happening in the world, that are endlessly more important than what marks I get from the 21 course hours I am taking my second semester of senior year, make it easier to stagger to the finish line. Seeing history made with two Supreme Court cases that turn Facebook red to sponsor the equality of love. Seeing bands of bikers across the country bending low to shake the hands of children abused and afraid, and standing tall so that their infamous force and unmistakable black leather becomes a demonstration of hope. More love, I suppose.

So when I am campaigning and emailing, tweeting and posting, calling my senators and lawmakers, stalking the last few burning days of Google Reader, it’s a nice break from the mundane nature and nonsense of papers and assignments that we sometimes forget are quite small in the grand scheme of things. I have written about the mundane in the Insighter, and I think part of me has hoped that identifying it would free us from it.

I’ve started counting the days. I won’t tell you how many are left because the numbers are sometimes as much of a plague as they are encouragement, hounding me as they do, that there are – in any given moment – too many days to endure or not enough days to enjoy. So I turn to the world, then, and Humans of New York, and The Strangers Project and little acts of random kindness make whatever humdrum dribble of my life I am avoiding at any given moment seem less mountainous.

So there are big things on the horizon for all of us. For us as individuals, while we declare majors and discover minors, apply for jobs and graduate programs, return to our families or fly far away to pursue dreams and hopes and wishes that we can’t realize soon enough. But there are big things happening out there too. Maybe we could pay a little more attention to out there and outside us. Maybe that will usher in a new kind of spring.

By Chloe Olewitz

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The Emory Wheel was founded in 1919 and is currently the only independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University. The Wheel publishes weekly on Wednesdays during the academic year, except during University holidays and scheduled publication intermissions.

The Wheel is financially and editorially independent from the University. All of its content is generated by the Wheel’s more than 100 student staff members and contributing writers, and its printing costs are covered by profits from self-generated advertising sales.