Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold.
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only for an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief, 
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Robert Frost

I first heard this poem when I was in middle school, and oddly enough I didn't have to read it for an english class. I heard this poem while watching The Outsiders, which was a book that I had to read for eight grade english. I fell in love with the book and the movie.

Ponyboy Curtis, the main character of The Outsiders, quotes this poem to his good buddy Johnny, and it becomes a theme of the novel. Nothing gold can stay. 

Everyone grows up. Seasons in our lives come to an end. Physical seasons like fall, winter, summer, and spring come to an end. Thus is life. There might be new seasons with gold, but nothing gold can stay. It does not last forever, at least not this side of heaven. 

I've been thinking about this as the golden hues of fall slowly turn to a dull brown. The gold of autumn cannot stay. Autumn makes way for winter. Winter makes way for spring. Spring makes way for summer. Summer makes way for autumn. Life goes on. 

The gold of this moment prepares us for the gold of the next. This is true of the seasons and of life. 

I'm in the golden stage of college. My time in college is slowly coming to an end. Nothing gold can stay. But like the seasons, college is just one golden season in my life. There will be many more. And they too will pass, but I can enjoy them while I'm in them.