Winter
By Alaina Raddatz, 17, Wisconsin
I hated winter.
I spent 17 years of my life dreading the end of fall because I knew what would come next and I hated every second of it.
Winter is dark and cold. The days are short. The blue evenings and cloudy days made my mood sink down into a bottomless pit.
The only thing I could ever do during winter was wait impatiently for spring to come knocking on my front door with its melting snow, warm pavement, clear skies. Spring dug me out of my pit year after year.
But then, I met you.
You love winter.
For you, winter means peaceful quiet evenings and friends huddled together to warm up. It means longer nights, it means playing in the snow, it means waking up to fresh, beautiful powder in the morning, and knowing how much fun you’ll have snowboarding all day.
And every time I tried to explain how I hated winter, you wouldn’t listen but instead told me about how it was the very thing you looked forward to every year.
When winter eventually came, you showed me the tranquil evenings every time you walked me to my car at the end of the night. You warmed up my cold hands by shoving yours in my jacket pockets with mine.
Meeting you made me see winter in a new light.
Now, every morning when I wake up to fresh powder on the ground, I think about how happy it would make you to see it.
When I drive down my driveway I can’t help but take a picture of the trees because they look like they’ve turned white and, oh my god, you would love this.
Instead of seeing the blue evenings as something gloomy and the cloudy skies as something bleak, I am reminded of the joy this weather brings you—and therefore brings me.
And even though I might not be able to hold onto you forever, it is certain that you have drastically changed me.
You helped me to see the beautiful colors in something I used to see as only black and white.
I wrote about how one person was able to pull me out of my depression that I had been struggling with for years and now I’m a much happier and optimistic person. This person helped me to see the positive side of things rather than the negative.
