Unpopular Opinion: Winter is Not Your Enemy

By Kori Lazar

Florence Welch once sang: There’s a special kind of sadness that seems to come with spring.

When I first heard those words, I began to think about how they rang true in my own life. I am one of those flaws in society that loves winter and it’s not because of holiday cheer or a desire to have an excuse to be sad all the time.

I genuinely believe there is some type of magic in the cold air. More specifically, I believe there is magic in things coming undone. In my eyes, romanticizing fall is overrated. Of course, things begin to change when the trees shed their leaves, just like you shed the toxicity in your life. But what comes next? Have you ever stopped to wonder what happens when the fall leaves settle?

My whole life, what I’ve looked forward to most is the coming of the snow, and snow is wondrous. It might be a little too Lorelai Gilmore for some of you, but there is a certain peace achieved in snow that some people will never experience. It’s different than hearing waves crash or birds chirping because the beauty in snow is there’s no sound at all. It sneaks up on you.

You go to sleep so unsuspecting and wake up to a pillow of glistening white waiting for you outside. There is beauty in how blissfully unaware we can be when a storm comes and goes with no one knowing. And there is silence. Silence to understand why everything is happening just the way it is. A moment, a minute, a day to just relax and enjoy that silence.

If you are lucky to be from somewhere where snow falling does not cause a parking fiasco for your neighborhood, consider yourself blessed. However, even with the struggles of living in a city during a snowstorm, there is something so beautiful in it.

Snow can come in a storm, in a bustling heap, keeping you in your pajamas all day. Or in a gradual fall all day long, tracking the size of the flakes to know when it might stop. Some beg for snow for sledding and skiing, others to curl up on the couch all day watching movies, but we sometimes beg for it just for a bit of that beauty.

For me, snow meant grabbing a trash can lid, an inner tube, or whatever anyone could find, and meeting everyone at the sledding hill half a block from my house. It was our family friend driving hours to meet us in a blizzard, then doing snow angels in his jeans in our driveway in a foot of fresh powder. It was my sisters and I jumping off our porch into a yard full of fluff while my grandparents looked on from the window.

It meant three-hour car rides that turned into seven while we tried to watch as many Harry Potter movies we could in the back seat. It was waking up at 6 a.m. to ski fresh tracks, and sleeping in the car on the way home while Bruce Springsteen played along. And now, that first snowfall, that first real cold day, is a reminder that all of that is happening again.

And now it means a day off from school to watch movies with my best friends or drinking hot chocolate snuggling with my cat and a really good book. It’s visiting my friends in different states to explore how other places look with a blanket of snow and waking up with them to ski-fresh tracks. It’s going back to the places where my love affair began and appreciating it more than I ever imagined I would.

None of this takes away from the fact that every season has its perks, and any time of year gives you the opportunity to start over, but I pity winter, and more importantly the people that have not experienced all the wonders it offers.