Anyone who lives in western Washington or follows a significant number of western Washingtonians on social media knows that in last week, the region received a decent amount of snowfall. After nearly twelve months of cowering in their homes and apartments and dodging COVID-19, many people went outside to frolic in the winter wonderland. As I scrolled through my Instagram feed, I came across photos upon photos of people building snowmen, making snow angels, or just grinning ear to ear with snowflakes in their hair. One thing that was common across all of these posts: everyone was having fun. Everyone made an effort to step outside of their daily routines and set aside time to play in the snow. Many people probably consider this an unnoteworthy observation, but I don’t.
Ever since the start of my college career in the fall of 2019, my life has seemed to have a sole focus on working. Attending classes, doing homework, and reading textbooks takes up the majority of my waking hours, along with eating meals and the occasional exercise routine that I can squeeze in. I’m a full-time student, so obviously it makes sense why I would dedicate the majority of my daily routine to schoolwork. But since I’ve transitioned to young adulthood and college, I’ve noticed that my life isn’t as replete with “fun” as it once was. Particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with limited opportunities for social interaction and zero events or social gatherings to attend, sometimes it just seems best to spend my Friday nights working on an essay rather than doing something that brings me pure happiness.
The snow has melted, and everyone’s back inside now. But there’s no reason why we only have to choose to have fun on the handful of days a year that western Washington receives significant snowfall. And there’s no reason why entering adulthood has to put a stop to doing things just for pure enjoyment. Find the activities that you think are fun to do, whether that’s cooking, painting, playing video games, or dancing around your house, and hold yourself accountable to do those things. Life is too short to wait for the snow days to play.