Snow is melting. Birds are singing. The sun is shining. Life goes on. The isolation, the frigid feeling that everything I once knew was over, it's vanished. These past few months, I wondered why anyone would choose to live in this desolate, bare land. Everything has been gray and quiet, almost as if life paused, only to begin again now. Maybe people choose to live here because the start of spring really is the start of a new beginning. Coming from a place that had two seasons, cold and summer, seeing the beginning of this new spring feels like a fresh start for all things. I know that it will still take a while to get over being so far away from the only home I've ever known, those I hold dear in my heart, and the ocean that I never wanted to move away from, but today feels like the beginning. We've been here for eight months, though when I stepped out my door today and heard the birds sing and felt the warmth around me, it felt like the first day in another new land. Today was the first time I felt not simply at peace, but happy to be here.