It’s March, and that means We’re almost all on or preparing for spring break right now. Some of us have already had ours, others have to wait til April, but altimately Spring Break has sprung for us all at this time. Some of us are going on major trips to beaches and foreign lands, others just heading home, more going on road trips. But we are all doing one thing: letting a powerful entity help us remember how to smile again.

The Sun, in all his glory, has finally decided to shine. And in his shining, he is healing us. While you may not all struggle with major seasonal depression like me, and you may not count down the days til you can stop needing to take Vitamin D supplements and hang out around a SAD lamp, I’m sure you can all relate to the dreariness and gloom of the long cold winter. For me, spring is huge but for us all it’s still pretty big.

I, for one, am in Phoenix with my family. I am bombarded with nostalgia left and right, remembering when I’d lived here as a child, and smiling so hard to be surrounded by sun and mountains and family and so many colorscapes and architectural settings that’s just do not exist in the Midwest. All these things I haven’t seen in YEARS, making me emotional but also filling me with joy.

I am happier than I’ve been in a long time and I owe it almost all to the sunbeams splashing down on me everywhere I go. I am 21, I am wearing t-shirts and shorts for the first time since August, and I am soaking up so much light and warmth that I might request lunch sweating.

Nothing is more rewarding than flying out of the cold and into the land of the sun, having him take your hand and shed your clothes, and fill your heart with love. Being able to see the sun in all his glory again—no longer suffering through the depression brought on by the gloom—has reminded me of just how wonderful the world can be.

Seeing this side of the year and all the peace it brings has made me so glad I survived the pain I’ve seen in the last four or five months. I am so proud of myself for all I’ve done to take care of not only myself but also my life in the time I’ve been suffering. I am so proud to have lived to another birthday, another spring break, and endless more family outings.

The sun itself always lives in the background of peoples’ spring break joys, but he is the one thing I always look forward to the most. If it weren’t for him, I would no longer be here or around, if it weren’t for the anticipation and reminders of good times to come, I wouldn’t have survived the winter.

So this is for the sun, for selflessly loving us and asking nothing in return, for always warming and brightening our world, and for existing eight light minutes away and yet still managing to reach us with his influence and his support of our joy, health, and sanity. The sun is the unsung hero of spring break and yet all our plans and lives revolve around him. Spring break wouldn’t exist without the sunlight, and neither would i.