Oh the first snowfall

Oh the first snowfall, it’s the same every year. Waking up and looking out to a world covered in white, being suddenly reminded of all the great things about the season to come, Christmas, snowball fights, making jumps in our backyard that we only ever thought about hitting. Then you take your first step outside and think about all the worst parts of winter, the infinite cold, the ugly ground brown with mud and topped off with a gloomy sky, the early sunsets, and the lack of short shorts.

             Although the feelings may be the same every year the experiences differ. We do different things and create new memories. Memories that can hit both extremes in the positives and negatives, like the time when I was snowboarding and did my first ever rail; coincidentally this was at the same time that I fell on my first rail. I had gotten half way across and slipped and fell on my tailbone, at this moment feeling both agony towards the pain and ecstasy towards my courage, (along with a little bit of morphine). An experience that can be categorized as both positive and negative, to extreme measures, because although it was hard to sit down it encouraged me to try again, and continue failing until I finally succeeded giving me a sense of accomplishment that will make it all worth it.

            Experiences make us who we are; they create new memories that shape our personalities. In 1885 Wilson A. Bentley discovered that no two snowflakes are alike and that they are all six sided. Our winters follow the same pattern, super-cooled, six months and creating new experience each as unique as the next. So now remember to think of winter as an opening for new opportunity, instead of closing for any activity.