New York City is still getting its fair share of snow, but I am hanging onto the promise of spring (and summer). It’s in the first few days of a new season that I begin to get amped about what’s to come — hello sunshine, outdoor activities, and weekend getaways — and what’s about to disappear — goodbye couch, pale skin, and winter depression. Once that warmer weather hits and the afternoon light lingers well into the evening, I would much rather spend my time being productive than curled up on the couch watching another season of Sex & the City for the umpteenth time. For the record, this sense of “productiveness” can be utilized in the laziest of ways — i.e. lying like a beached whale on the grass with your friends eating lots of hummus.

Indeed, spring and summer are the seasons where the best memories are made. Songs played on repeat become forever ingrained as “the songs of the season”, every weekend becomes a venue for an impulsive getaway, and even the smallest things like happy hour become epic events because everyone is just in a better mood (gotta love that Vitamin D!)

But the start of the warmer seasons also bring an inevitable sense of nostalgia. Those songs of last spring and summer will never sound as good as they did those first hundred times. My plans to do exactly what I did the year before — music festivals, spring’s first barbecues, rogue trips — will never really be same. And that’s neither good nor bad, it’s just different. As much as we want to relive last year’s memories, we also want to make new ones. This year already promises new experiences starting off with a road trip down south, a bachelorette party in Miami, and multiple weddings come August. And while I have no doubts that activities like epic happy hours and last minute weekends to the Hamptons and Connecticut will generously sprinkle themselves into the next five months, I look forward to making the memories that I’ll be nostalgic for next year.