As you say goodbye to moderate-temperature days and appropriately lighted nights, a period of solidarity and quietness begins, each night soft and calm yet dark and cold. No longer is there a reason to play outside till dinnertime or go on evening walks, as it is time to pursue the comfort of your couch with a crispy fire set ablaze. With each sound the wood cracking makes, the sun sets increasingly until the world as you know it is softly sleeping in a dark, cozy tunnel.
You wake, and thanks to turning back your clocks, you see the sun that ever so recently had fallen asleep rise like the smoke your comfortable fire was emitting just the previous evening. As you untuck yourself from the blankets you rested in, you prepare for the day ahead, even though you don’t particularly enjoy the biting cold. As you exit your home, the chill you expected comes to life, and your fingers begin to tingle, and your legs become numb. You realize this workday may not be so dark or cozy but instead a bright, cold tunnel.
You finally arrive at the holidays, which feels long after the unofficial start of winter. You gather around the dinner table at your grandmother’s house with your relatives, Christmas carols in the background, and remember what it is about the winter that is not entirely dreadful. With a stomach full to the brim, the celebration relocates to the living room, where all your loved ones are under one roof, where you watch Christmas classics together. The lights dim, enhancing the watching experience, and the hallways and rooms fade into the night. The transformation is complete, and you are now in a dark, cozy tunnel.
The rest of the winter is nothing to cheer for, as all you have to look forward to is in the spring. The crispiness of the air transformed into a painful sting, and the snow on the ground is now hazardous ice. All the reasons you desire winter to roll around now become the reasons you can’t wait for summer to come. It is time for this season to end, as it is no longer a dark cozy tunnel, but a long and dreadful path.
