Note: This was originally posted on wacie.com on March 16, 2013.

The first day of spring is this week, and I spent all day today preparing for it. I put away my winter coat and boots, my pinstripe trousers and sweaters, my hats and scarves. I pulled out all my cork platform shoes, my flowing maxi dresses, my plaid bermuda shorts and tube tops. I took all the fine, dainty jewelry I wore this winter out of the jewelry box and replaced it with handmade hemp bracelets and souvenir jewelry from my last vacation. I started daydreaming how I’ll style my hair, if I’ll dye the ends blue like I did last year, how I’ll wear my makeup. Spring is a time of change for everything else in nature; trees return to their lush fullness, flowers blossom and thrive. I, too, want to shed the cold, dark winter and become something beautiful. For me, this is what spring is all about. It’s my favorite time of the year.

It was 80 degrees today. The weather this winter was odd; most of January had these high temperatures, and they disappeared into February and March. I spent those months wrapped in hoodies and yoga pants and crocheted blankets, the warmest and most comfortable clothes I own, shaking my fist at the ceiling from the warmth of my couch. “Why can’t you be like January?” I’d ask. “Why are you warm for two days and cold again for the rest of the week? Why can’t you make up your mind?” I was starting to give up on ever being able to walk around my house in shorts again. Then today, the weather was sunny, warm, perfect. It was the day I waited all year for.

With spring on its way and summer around the corner, I have so much to look forward to: tanning by the pool, reading on the porch, sleeping with the windows open, eating gazpacho and drinking iced tea. I have some goals, as well: I want to write something new in April. I want to have my book completely finished by the end of summer. I want to ignore the world for the sake of my art. I’d like to go to Atlanta at least once, but that depends on whether I can find someone to feed my cats.

I feel like I wasted winter; I started so many projects and completed none of them. March is half over, and I still have nothing to show to people and say “Hey, look at what I did in 2013!” That’s going to change soon. I’m going to focus more on writing and let everything else go for a while. Spring may as well be the beginning of my year, and I plan to start it off right.