One last dance

TEXT: JENNA VIRTANEN PICTURE: JENNA VIRTANEN

Even though there is a little too much snow for my liking, spring is here. At least if you believe the calendar. I have mixed feelings about springtime. Don’t get me wrong, I like spring. After endless darkness in the winter, the sun is one of the best things that you can get. I just think that the spring semester has a bad habit of bending and it is most definitely never in my favor. Time works two ways in the spring semester. Either it feels like there are more things to do than time or it feels like the summer will never come.

As a student, the beginning of the new year often feels like an endless obstacle course with no way of getting through in the given time limit. Even though the beginning of the year has a lot of stress with schoolwork and finding a job for the summer, it’s not all dark and gloomy either. There is little light at the end of the winter.

I think that is one of the reasons why I think student Vappu is so necessary. It gives us students something to wait for. For a moment, student life can be something else than just studying. It’s good to have something else to think about before new obligations get in the way of that.

The end of the school year and the beginning of the summer is always bittersweet time. In a way, it is the end of an era. Some will stay in Vaasa for the summer, some will leave and some will have a new chapter waiting for them, Vappu is the last page of their student life. For some people student Vappu looks like just an opportunity to be reckless, party and drink a lot. I would argue that it is little more than that. For us, it is one last chance to get together for one last dance, before it’s time to pack our bags for the summer.