Un Descanso de Primavera en Septiembre – Spring Break in September

I have been in college (la universidad) for a long time.  I left high school in the spring of 1981 and enrolled at Duke University in the following fall.  Along the way, getting to today, I have attended 5 universities, including the one at which I am currently employed as a professor, the University of Texas at El Paso. Along the way, I have garnered degrees, taken classes in science, literature, languages and technology (ciencia, literatura, idiomas y tecnología).  Yet, I have never, ever had a spring break in September.

I was born in Virginia in October and each fall in the East, I would celebrate my birthday (mis cumpleaños) in the spirit of football and the changing seasons, the leaves turning colors, the air getting crisp and the nights getting cooler.  In other words, the fall, with things falling all around. In contrast (En contraste), the spring has always meant March and April, March Madness giving way to April Showers and the signs of spring.  And, of course, as a college student and now a professor, spring also means spring break, a rite of passage for all students regardless of age, a week to abandon all thoughts of winter (el invierno) and seek out the sunshine and sensations of the summer (el verano) to come.

But, in this September in Santiago, I sit up on a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Viña del Mar, and look over the beginning of my spring break (mi descanso de la primavera).  With a day in the mid 70s and the flowers starting to bloom all around, the gentle seaside breezes giving way to the laughter of couples young and old, arm in arm, I am transformed and transfixed to another time (un otro tiempo).  Although I should be firmly entrenched in a tailgate at a Miner football game, I am instead basking in the setting sun, slowly setting into the Pacific.

Spring Break in September (septiembre) is definitely something that sounds weird, and to say it aloud verifies it to any North American.  Yet, with an eye (un ojo) on the future and a tie to the past, maybe the break in the spring will divide my time here and propel me forward into divine and splendid future (el futuro).