Spring Bucket List
It’s that magical time of the year when the trees on campus shimmy into their spring costumes and shed pink petals onto gray pavements. The days sprinkle yellow sunshine over the ancient bricks, warming the buildings and flooding the Main Green with picnic blankets and neglected school books. The warmth nudges the skunks out of hibernation and sends hay fever haywire. The weeks at the end of April are complete bliss. It’s the sliver of time right after the last midterms fizzle out and just before the final exams demons drop down from their evil lair in the sky. It’s a time to take a deep (but not too deep) breath and enjoy the unraveling enchantment of spring.
Unfortunately, it’s also the time when my Flex Points dip below the dollar and I can afford less than two meal swipes a day. The end of the year may mean rationing vanilla lattes at the Blue Room and distancing myself from 1 a.m. Jo's sessions, but it’s also the last chance to try everything else. Before I make the third floor of the Rock a destination to stare at blank Google documents and finals prompts longer than a page, there are a couple of goals I’d like to accomplish; a bucket list per se:
SLEEP IN ALUMNI GARDENS
This goal is partially terrifying. The critters of the night traverse the streets of Providence with unpredictable appetites in their bellies. If at 4:02 a.m. they happen to stumble upon Alumni Gardens with a keen craving for an English concentrator who just turned 20, I’d be finished. But the idea of setting up a comfy sleeping bag and staring at the stars until a light spring breeze carries me into my dreams is a marvelous thought. Alumni Gardens seems like it would be the ideal place to spend the night, enclosed in a forest of blooming trees with the scent of blossoming flowers. Not to mention when I wake up, I’d be less than a two-minute walk from my morning classes. As someone who lives in Perkins, this aspect is huge. It feels like a pretty achievable goal. I would just need to borrow a sleeping bag and find a friend who will stay up while I snooze and defend me from the Providence wildlife.
GET AN AUTOGRAPH AT BROWN SPRING WEEKEND
I’ve never gone to a concert or a sports game without a piece of paper and a Sharpie. I’ve also probably never sat less than 70 rows away from the performers or athletes, but you never know. The one time I did forget a piece of paper was in middle school when Saint Motel did a free concert in downtown Providence. After the show, my best friend and I shimmied our way to the front and met the band. When they offered their signatures my best friend, who always came prepared, handed them her piece of paper and got a permanent autograph. I, on the other hand, got a scribble across my arm. Although it is a childish wish to get a celebrity's autograph, it’s not a goal I will give up this year.
WATCH A MOVIE AT THE AVON
On one of these rainy spring days, I want to watch a movie at the Avon. I appreciate them more when I see them at the Avon, but I haven’t been to the little theater on Thayer Street since before the pandemic. The Avon’s vintage decor sends me back to a decade I never lived through. It’s almost as if I’m acting in the movie myself. I love that the building only houses one theater and that the song “Let’s Go to the Lobby” plays before every film. The Avon introduced me to Whiplash, The Favourite, Sing Street, Isle Of Dogs, and so many other now-favorites.
One of the greatest parts about the Avon is the bathroom. Right before entering, there’s a candy machine that only works occasionally, and is always a very pleasant surprise when it does. Inside the bathroom, there’s a full-length mirror that fuels me with the confidence to stare at myself and think, “Could I make a movie one day?”. They also equip the bathrooms with speakers so people like me with tiny bladders that can’t hold a medium-sized root beer through a two-hour movie don’t have to miss the film’s audio. Before finals steal every hour of my waking life, I want to watch something there and take a trip back in time.
