As a transplant to Minnesota from a less winter-intense state further south, being on campus is a front-row seat to the seasons of Minnesota.

In the height of fall, you walk from the parking lot to your work building and see the canopy of fall leaves over you and to the end of the open “green” space. Red, yellow, orange, and brown leaves inspire you and distract you from the cooling temperatures. You drive up the hill to campus in the late fall/early winter and find yourself surprised with grazing deer just outside of residence halls. Winter is for a white blanket across the “green” space and sometimes every branch and leaf coated in ice. A bright blue sky contrasting the white covered landscape. In the spring the campus is alive again with students hammocking and green as far as the eye can see. One day you walk out and find the llamas have arrived to give everyone a work break! Summer is for lunching in the green space with my work friends all summer long, taking in some rays and and laughs until the bugs drive us away!

I’m lucky to work on such a beautiful campus diligently maintained by members of the facilities, grounds, and maintenance crews — all individuals who do their job not realizing how much they impact my joy on a given day.