This blog was prepared by YMCA Newcomer Information Centre Information and Referral Specialist, Margaret Wong.

In Ontario, March Break, also known as Spring Break, and it usually falls on the third week in March.  It is a holiday for elementary and secondary school students.  Typically, families will use this break time to do fun activities together and a lot of them will book travel trips.

This year, the Minister of Education has announced that March Break which was originally scheduled for March 15^th to March 19^th, 2021 has now been postponed to April 12^th to the 16^th, 2021. Even though, March Break is now April Break, don’t let this discourage us from indulging ourselves in the spring season.

Although this year the spring might feel duller and different, there is a positive side! We’ve become wiser, stronger, more adaptive and flexible in many ways since the pandemic started. Cheers to those of you who have become better cooks, because you couldn’t go out to dine as often as you’d like. Congrats to those who’ve developed new habits like exercising daily, reading new books, or building new things. Hurray to students and teachers who’ve drove through the difficulties of remote learning, and to those who’ve managed to build better relationships with the people around them.

If you haven’t done anything mentioned above, don’t worry! March is still a time to celebrate. Spring is coming, a time to do some gardening, a time to plant new hopes. A lot of people like to do New Year Resolutions, but in March we pay off our New Year bills and have some quiet time to think about our ideas to pamper ourselves and our plans for the future.

March also marks our one year anniversary since our city’s very first lockdown in March 2020. It’s an anniversary that no one wants to celebrate. However, since then, we’re all much more educated now about the virus, the symptoms, and how to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

Frontline workers, health professionals, scientists, patients and families who’ve lost their loved ones during this pandemic have suffered and worked very hard to push through a difficult year. Our thanks, and gratefulness extends beyond words- they are the heroes of this pandemic.