Winter has never been my favorite season. Yeah, it’s pretty to see all the snow and the holiday lights. But it is a b*tch to drive in as soon as the snow becomes slush and ice. Recently, ice storms have been hitting the U.S. and turning our roads into an ice skating ink for our cars. The nice chilly weather becomes unbearable after a few weeks of lugging around a heavy winter coat. It becomes a tedious task having to scrape the ice off your car in the mornings—if you remember to start it early to let it warm up.
The winter season is nice to look at from behind a window inside a warm house, but as soon as you have to step out in it, it becomes unbearable for me. Winter became a scary thing during the pandemic because we also had to worry about the risk of getting the flu. Getting the flu shot was more important than ever, but it doesn’t protect you 100%. At least in previous years, being stuck at home during the winter wasn’t so bad because it was the cold temperatures that kept us indoors. This year was different because, after months and months of having to stay indoors because of the pandemic, the winter felt even more mentally draining.
During the summer, I had gone on almost daily walks with my parents around our neighborhood. We had gone on drives later in the evenings with the windows down and enjoying the fresh air coming into the car. My friends and I had socially distant picnics at the parks near us and enjoyed each other’s company beyond face-to-screen FaceTime calls. I miss that because it still let me enjoy the summer weather, even during such a mentally stressed out time. Spring is not my favorite season either.
The allergies I get always makes me suffer during the nice blooming of the flowers. However, the warm weather is a nice change of pace from months of cold temperatures and days of snow and ice. I also get to wear my more colorful clothes since all of my winter wardrobe is just dark-colored sweatshirts and leggings. The spring season also lets us enjoy the activities we enjoyed during the summer in the mid-year months of the pandemic. I miss those days of walking outside and driving with the windows down.
This pandemic has been hard on all of us, mentally and emotionally. The closest thing we had back to “normal” life was when we were able to free ourselves from our homes physically and enjoy the world in the safest ways we can. I patiently wait for spring, so the warmer weather will let us get out into the parks and late-night drives again. We won’t have to worry about getting sick with the common cold or the flu or having more of a risk of getting coronavirus. Hopefully, we get to go back to normal life by the spring of 2022, living our lives vaccinated and mask free. Spring 2021 will let us do our safely distant outdoor activities and hopefully let us release some stress that we hoarded during the winter.