Snow

I love snow.

I love looking outside my bedroom window late at night and seeing the beautiful, seemingly enchanted white forest that snow creates out of the woods surrounding my house. I love standing outside in the middle of a snowstorm trying to catch snowflakes on my tongue. I love staring at the beauty that is winter, glimpsing small puffs of my breath in front of me and feeling my cheeks grow rosy from the wonderful, wonderful cold that snow brings.

I know what you're thinking. Everyone loves snow, right? Maybe, but I feel like few people truly appreciate it. To all the realists out there: yes, I am aware that snow is really just a form of precipitation that occurs when the temperature drops below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. That may be the proper scientific definition, but to me, snow is something more.

Snow is like a blank canvas; you can do anything you want with it. The possibilities are endless - sledding, snow angels, snow men - hell, shovel it out of there if you want. Point is, what you do with snow is your choice; and in many cases, the possibilities are endless. Sound familiar? I guess what I'm trying to say is, snow is like life. It starts out clean, pure, and white; no imperfections, no memories. But as time goes on, the snow is shaped and molded according to those who use it. Footprints are embedded in its surface, and eventually it loses its pearly white color, until, one day, it melts completely.

You can say it's inconvenient if you want; you can whine and gripe about shoveling the snow out of the driveway and driving carefully on the freshly plowed roads. But let's face it; that's life. Nothing actually stays perfectly white and untouched. At some point, someone's going to step on the snow. Some plow is going to shove some nasty street snow into it, turning it an unpleasant grey color. But even if all of that happens, the fact remains; it's still snow. And just because it's tainted, doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy it. In the same way, life can be inconvenient. It's not all a walk through a bed of roses. Times are tough, and not every person you meet is going to be your favorite person in the world, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy life while you can. After all, snow never lasts long; before you know it, it's melted completely. And although that exact snow will never return, it's memory will remain imprinted on the minds of those it affected. Memories of snow forts, sledding, making snow angels with best friends as a child often stay with a person throughout his or her entire life. And hopefully, if you're lucky, the memory of you will stay with the people in your life throughout their entire lives.