One of my favorite seasons is autumn. Autumn brings out the radiant colors of the foliage and the pumpkins. On Oct. 23, in the Spurk Building on the Haverhill Campus, for the first time, Brianna Soresen of Student Life put together a Pumpkin Palooza! It was her idea to give students a break from their studies. She wanted students to interact with each other outside of the classroom.

The morale of the students was extremely high. There were pumpkins galore, along with donuts, hot cider, and mini cupcakes. In addition, there were stations for students to use their creativity, for carving and decorating pumpkins. The lobby of the Spurk Building that filled with festive music and gave the students enthusiasm with a spiritual feeling of autumn. 

“Giving students permission to take a break and look up. Creating a sense of community so students can talk to one another in a non-academic space.”

I had the privilege of sitting next to Max Lockard, who has been a student since 2022, and he is majoring in music. Max was one of the students who participated in this pumpkin event. Lockard carved his favorite character from the Battlestar Galactica 1987 series, Cyclon.

“Don’t let your memes be your dreams.”

He did an incredible job with his creativity on his pumpkin, and the enthusiasm that he displayed was impressive.

Another student who participated in the pumpkin event was Liranni German. German, who is also the Campus Life editor of the Observer, has been at NECC since 2023, and she is majoring in business. 

“I love it, it’s a good idea to relax after a long day of studying,” she said. 

Although Germanchose not to carve her pumpkin, she chose to paint her artificial pumpkin green. The experience of interviewing these three individuals overwhelmed me with joy.