As the Weather Turns Colder, It’s Time for Pruning Season

For those of you who don’t know, I grew up in an apple orchard, and every spring, my dad would start the grueling job of pruning the apple trees. Pruning is the process of removing dead, unproductive and obstructive branches from a tree to help promote new, healthy growth. Although it is a difficult process, in order for our trees to produce large, beautiful apples, it must be done every year. I used to hate to see my dad out there on the ladder cutting down all those branches from the trees, but now that it’s the fall and the trees are full of big, red and yellow apples, I knew it was all worth it!

Let’s pretend you all are trees.

Think of yourself as an apple tree for a minute. Are there any branches on your tree that could possibly prevent you from growing or finding success while you are here at school? Maybe one is that bad habit you have of  procrastinating instead of doing your homework. How about those friends of yours with their bad influence and negative attitudes. Perhaps one is your inability to stop wasting money buying frivolous things.

Everybody got their list? Let’s grab those pruning shears!

If there is anything in your life that will or already does prevent you from achieving growth or pursuing your dreams while you are here at school cut it away. Whether it be a bad habit, bad situation or even a friend or family member, if it’s unproductive, obstructive or just straight up dead, it’s time to remove it from your life. I know this process may be hard — especially when it comes to friends and family, but in order to grow during our time at Newhouse, this pruning must be done. The picture below shows the apple trees at my house before, during, and after pruning. In the first picture, the trees are filled with a bunch of crazy branches. The middle picture is during the pruning process, and as you can see, the trees are already starting to blossom. Of course, the last picture shows the tree full of beautiful, yellow apples after the pruning process is complete.

It’s evident that the process of pruning produces positive results that can not only be applied to plants, but that we can learn from as graduate students as well. Find all of the dead branches in your life, whether they be people, situations or parts of yourself, and cut them away. Although the process may be a little hard, you will start to see the results not after the process is complete, but during the process as well. You will start to see growth, and by the time you reach the end of our time at Newhouse, you will be flourishing with success and happiness.

-Kayla Skipper is a graduate student studying television, radio and film