Some call it "Slut Week." I call it Paradise.

It occurs every year-- a familiar and cherished time for New Englanders and New Yorkers. It is the first week of warm weather, this year occurring in April, when young women are finally able to break out of the constriction of their skin-tight jeans and yoga pants and show off their winter-white, fake-tanned, or chocolate-brown legs, much to the delight of the young men sporting cargo shorts and mandals.

It has been a long, cold six months, but now it is time to crawl under tiny dorm room beds, blow the dust off storage bins, and pull out those short shorts, because it's freedom time. Black, white, or orange, thick or thin, the feeling is mutual. It's so good to be able to kick off snow boots in exchange for flip flops. Toenails are painted, legs are shaved for the first time in months, and hair is tossed up in ponytails. Nighttime outdoor practices become bearable in shorts and tee-shirts instead of three layers of sweats. Colorful bra straps peek out from under tank tops, and the chirping of birds accompanies alarms for 9 a.m. classes.

No one is inside. Productivity is at an all-time low, with senioritis at its peak, even for the underclassmen. The population of the campus seems to triple as everyone emerges from the winter slump. It is a scene from a college brochure. The tulips are blooming around sunbathing students, who laugh at peers' attempts to throw a frisbee.

Students from far away who aren't used to the snowy winters are so relieved they could cry. They feel that no one warned them it would take this long for the sun to come back. It's as if they've served an extra long prison sentence even though they were innocent, but now they've been let out into a world that satisfies a generic definition of heaven. They can't fly, but they feel like they might sprout wings any second. Some try to sing like the angels, starling the squirrels and feral cats and earning chuckles from passers by.

Summer is in sight. Hormones are raging, vacations are in the planning process, and everything is more beautiful than it was in the fall. There is only a month before finals week, but no one is worried about the cramming they'll have to endure when it arrives-- everyone is just trying to enjoy the warm weather while it lasts. Because who knows? Next week could be freezing again; Northeast weather at its finest.