As exams are slowly charging up, people are gathering outside in the refreshing cool air to take a break from the smell of textbooks and educational YouTube videos. The campus is graced with new, budding vegetation, and students are taking notice.
Jason Cuddeback, a second-year studying physics, loves the new inviting smells that are filling the air.
“I just love how I can lay back in my hammock and smell tulips and honeysuckles,” Cuddeback said. “It’s great to take my mind off things and just relax and swing with the breeze. I really love just bringing a book in there and reading forever or taking a long nap.”
The trees around campus are now no longer bare, but have begun budding with new scents and colors adding to the hammock lifestyle around campus. The hammock users now can enjoy the aromatic smells of flowers, which can remind someone of a warmly scented bath or a mountain hike, all from the comfort of a slowly swinging hammock.
The most noticeable addition to the NC State campus are the tulips which were planted recently outside of Tucker Residence Hall and other areas around campus. The tulips are in a variety of shades from red to yellow. Though slightly damaged by the still inconstant chilly breeze, they brighten the campus with a warm spring glow.
The breezeway between the D.H. Hill Library and North Campus also features new flowers and plants and plenty of places to sit and enjoy them. The fresh daisies and wild grass pop up around the grounds in between the sea of bricks to offer a stunning contrast to the campus.
Grant Pitman, a second-year studying history and economics, enjoys the flowers and the new exciting activities that they signal as the spring semester is winding to a close.
“It’s just really exciting to have these cool days so everyone can go out and play volleyball, spike ball or just throw a Frisbee around,” Grant said. “It’s really nice after having been stuck inside because it was really too cold to do anything. I’m really glad that, before the semester ends, we can all go out and have a good time.”
There has been an increase in the amount of outdoor activities as the temperatures have begun to stabilize. People have been going out to frolic in the flowers and enjoy quality time with friends or make new ones along the way.
Tucker Residence Hall, Harris Field, and the Court of North Carolina have been flooded with people leisurely lounging in the grass, reading, chatting or playing numerous outdoor activities.
Activities include beach volleyball, with courts inviting to all players, and spike ball, with nets that are always set up with both teams diving to keep the ball in play. Just like the emerging wildlife sprouting around campus, the new popular sport at NC State seems to be Frisbee due to the competition that had everyone on campus on their heels as competing schools duked it out with the solid plastic discs.
However, as the ever lurking hand of exams approaches, a decline of merriment is expected. The flowers around campus remind us of the wonder of the outdoors, but also the rapid moving of time.
The flowers on campus may sometimes be overlooked; however, they seem to have a psychological effect on the students whether they are aware of it or not. The flowers bring people outside from the dark layers of the library and bring excitement to their study-filled day.
A tulip may brighten someone’s day more than they can imagine, which explains why they are an essential part of the campus because of their ability to cheer the student body up after a long day of cramming.
