Reason one: everyone is sick. I have a very strong immune system, but even I could not avoid the various ailments that are stalking the halls of this school. The chorus of sniffing in quiet classrooms is progressively driving me to insanity. For the first time in a long while, I got sick. I awoke feeling like I had just had fiber glass shoved into my lungs, and my sinuses were coated in kerosene and lit on fire. I crawled out of bed and into the kitchen, leaving a trail of tissues as I walked –like Hansel and Gretel in an old band t-shirt and sweatpants. Thankfully, my illness only lasted a few days and I am on the mend, but those days spent curled up in bed like a Victorian child dying of influenza were not pretty.
Reason two: it’s so dark. There is absolutely no reason the sun should be setting before 6pm. I hate walking my dog in the dark. I mean, serial killers are just waiting for a girl to be walking alone at 5:45 in the pitch dark, and I am not trying to get Ted Bundy-ed. I must be vigilant when walking, because I know damn well my dog’s anxiety is just as bad as mine and she is not sticking around to protect me from a murderer. According to Office of Justice Programs, “stranger kidnaping[s] are somewhat more likely than family kidnaping to occur in the evening (6 p.m. to midnight) or nighttime (midnight to 6 a.m.)”. To further my hatred of nighttime promenades with my pup, they say, “Acquaintance kidnaping involves a comparatively high percentage of juvenile perpetrators” and “has the largest percentage of female and teenage victims”. Cough cough– ME!
Reason three: cold. I don’t do well in the cold. Nothing puts me in a worse mood than waking up in my warm bed only to realize I have to get up and it’s 27 degrees out. If you have ever tried to exercise in two pairs of pants and two layers of wool socks, you know how I choose to spend my evenings at the barn. Riding a horse is hard but fun, and being constricted by many layers of cotton and polyester makes it extra difficult and far less enjoyable. When I come home from the cold, nothing can get me warm again. Even submerging myself in a painfully hot bath doesn’t seem to make a difference.
I asked my peers what they think the worst parts of winter are. Zoe said that one of the most unbearable things we experience are “The days where it is bitter cold biting through the skin, but there is no ice on the ground or snow. That’s what we are in right now.” Violet said she hates “having to wait for my own home to heat up before I can relax in the living room, and [I also hate] my cold toes.” According to Dylan, he despises “all the ice on the car when you first get in.”
It is clear I am not the only one with a deep-seated hatred of the most despicable season of all.
