10 Reasons to Hate . 1 Reason to Love

Ten Reasons I Hated Winter

         1.          I hate the cold, I hate shivering and tensing up, and how my nose turns bright red. I would always rather sweat and pant than shiver and bundle up.
         2.          I hate the air. The cold, cold air that makes my lungs sore and bites my face, how it ruthlessly lashes and whips any exposed skin.
         3.          I love the sun and even when it surprises me with its rays I know I will be missing it again come five pm.
         4.          I hate the ice. I hate how it scares me whenever I travel whether by foot or by car. I hate how I lose control due to it, and I hate how it stings my skin, sticking and almost burning to the touch.
         5.          Like ice, I hate the snow. I hate how it’s as biting as ice and it gets everywhere, then soaks all that has touched it. I hate how blinding it is, in many more ways than one.
         6.          I hate how society economized holidays, marring the time of year I looked forward to more than anything as a child and making me grow as bitter and cold inside as it was out. I hated how I wasn’t allowed to enjoy the loving, peaceful time of Thanksgiving and Christmas as an adult, and I hate how hypocritical that statement (loving, peaceful time) became.
         7.          I hate how every radio station, store, TV channel, magazine, and even newspaper was full of Christmas ads, jingles, and the same twenty songs- over and over again.
         8.          I hate working through it all, trudging to work with bare tires on icy roads in negative twelve degrees with a wind chill of almost negative thirty; and then sat there with my coworkers unsurprised that no one wanted to venture out into the cold for salad and soup.
         9.          I hate the transformation to my body and all of the clothes I put onto it. My hair turned to static, my clothes were full of static, my car or door knobs shocked me; with static. My lips pained me when I smiled, laughed, or spoke; my skin cracked, bled, and caught on clothes or blankets.
         10.          Most of all, I hated all of this being expected of me after a short period of time, and I hated what I had become, and I hated encouraging all of those things with the perpetual impression that “I hate winter.”

One Reason I Love Winter

         1.          You.

Our first kiss, on a cold November night, jumping between cars with the heat on and the radio playing.

You changed everything about that winter. From stolen moments on cold nights, in cold cars, to the hot flush of my cheeks as I nervously met your family amid all the holiday bustle, and the warm flutter in my chest as you became acquainted with mine.

The shock of your black hair and bright, sparkling blue eyes against the backdrop of sparkling snow.

That gorgeous cherry red lipped smile and your rosy, chill-bitten cheeks.

The day of sliding and sledding and playing I spent with you and our friends. The day you played with my little sister in the snow, both of us so bundled up, and you helped us build a snow man.

How you held me so close and warmed your hands in my jacket and complained that my nose was cold, or my hands were cold.

How you helped me put my gloves on, how you are ever patient as I bundle up and ready myself for the cold, and how you deal with my everlasting complaints about the low temperatures.
 
         Now, when I think of winter, I think of you and how I saw you for the first time after you came home, in that coffee shop on that cold day, and it was snowing. I remember how you shivered, and how I was too distracted by your appearance to notice the chill. I think of falling in love with you the next winter, of seeing you standing there in the snow, or sitting in the car singing along to Christmas jingles so joyfully. I think of our first Thanksgiving surrounded by our hectic families, our Christmas together, and our first New Year’s Eve. I think of your rosy cheeks and getting the truck stuck in the snow, and how you made me stay in the warm car, you wouldn’t let me help shovel. I think of how you shoveled my drive way and picked me up from work. I think of snuggling up close to you and nuzzling under blankets, watching the snow fall and hearing all of your stories, and how you loved the Christmas lights, and how you loved the way the snow looked.
I think of how mesmerized by you I became that suddenly, as next winter fell onto our world overnight, and I woke up to snow crunching beneath my feet, the same twenty Christmas jingles on the radio, I realized suddenly that I loved the winter, but more than that, I love you.