Madison stared through the window and watched a puffy white cloud pass over the woods across from the school. It must be wonderful to be a bird, she thought. Total freedom. No math class to sit in, and her days would be spent on horseback. She thought of her horse, Star.

“Madison. Could you please join us again?” Mrs. Smith said. “I was just asking the class if anyone had any problems with the homework assignment.”

“Well, I didn’t have any problems doing it, but I had problems remembering to put it in my school bag after I did it.” Some giggling spread through the room.

“Madison. I don’t know what I am going to do with you. You’re such a smart girl but you just don’t apply yourself. Class, clear your desks. Our guest is here and welcome Doctor Landon. He is a veterinarian (兽医). He came here today as part of our continued Career Explorations Program.”

Madison tried to focus as Doctor Landon talked about how important grades were and how he struggled with math when he was a kid. Doctor Landon was still talking but she lost track of what he was saying. Then a word caught her attention. Horse. Was he talking about horses?

Gradually, Madison knew Doctor Landon had come to her town and house when her horse, Star, needed care. She liked it that he even knew her horse’s name. “So, you just travel around and take care of horses all day long?”

Doctor Landon nodded. “I travel with my truck to take care of horses and ponies across the county. It is a lot of work, but I love it.”

Madison’s mouth fell open. What a life that must be, she thought. At that moment, sitting in class, Madison could see her future and her life suddenly seemed bigger. By the time she got off the bus that afternoon, her plans for the afternoon had changed. She was still going to ride Star, but first she was going to spend an hour studying math. Then tomorrow she’d spend an hour studying science.

Cherry blossoms (樱花) in Kyoto, Japan, reached peak bloom (绽放) on March 26 this year — the earliest the event has occurred in 1,200 years of records. Why so soon?

According to records previously collected by Professor Yasuyuki Aono, Kyoto’s cherry blossoms had consistently flowered around April 10 to 17 for over a thousand years. The Washington Post reports that Japan’s most famous flowers have been trending toward blooming earlier each spring, with scientists blaming the phenomenon on increasing global temperatures. And this year, the peak has shifted all the way into the previous month. “The Kyoto Cherry Blossom record is incredibly valuable for climate change research. Even a slight drop or rise of springtime temperatures can be recorded by it,” research scientist Benjamin Cook said, noting that warmer temperatures typically mean cherry blossoms bloom earlier.

Cherry blossoms are influenced so easily by temperature that trees in Tokyo even bloomed in autumn after typhoons caused warmer weather in 2018. Meanwhile, Aono estimated that Kyoto has warmed by 3.4 degrees Celsius since 1820.While this year’s cherry blossom peak was Kyoto’s earliest in 1,200 years, this isn’t the case in other parts of Japan Tokyo reached peak bloom on March 22, which is three days earlier than average and the earliest date since 1953.

However, the global trend seems to be slowly pushing cherry blossoms into full bloom to earlier in the year regardless of where they’re planted. In 2019, scientist Patrick Gonzalez noted that the trend of earlier blooming seen among cherry blossoms in Washington was “consistent with human-caused climate change.”

Cherry blossoms are considered in full or peak bloom when 80 percent of the flowers have bloomed, which usually occurs within a week of the first flowers opening. Elements other than may also be involved in the early blooming. Gonzalez offered the warning that “no research has examined all of the factors, and it is a long way to go.”