Starting Over in Spring

By Harper Robinson-Howard

March 20, 2026, 10:00 a.m.

There’s something about spring that makes everything feel like a fresh start. The air gets warmer, the days stretch longer, and the world feels full of possibility again. Trees that looked lifeless begin to bloom, and the same is true, in a way, for people. A few springs ago, I decided to start over, too.

Moving schools is a strange experience. Sure, you have to find new classrooms and memorize a new schedule, but you are also stepping into a place where everyone else already seems to belong. Friend groups are established, routines are familiar, and even the hallways have their own kind of rhythm that you are just trying to catch up to.

At first, it’s overwhelming. You notice everything: where people sit at lunch, how teachers run their classes, and the inside jokes you don't understand yet. It can feel a little like standing on the outside of something that youre not sure how to enter.

With spring just around the corner, let it be a reminder that growth is gradual, not instantaneous. Flowers don’t just bloom overnight. A quick conversation can turn into a familiar face, a familiar face into someone you wave to in the hallway. Then slowly, something foreign starts to feel like yours.

There’s also something quite powerful about being new. You get a chance to redefine yourself and decide what you want to carry with you and what you want to leave behind. Of course, there are still moments of uncertainty. Change doesn’t become easy just because the weather is nicer. But there is a comfort in knowing that everything around you is changing too. 

Many say spring is about starting over, but spring is about growing into something new. And maybe that's what moving schools is: not just leaving something behind, but giving yourself the chance to bloom somewhere else.