Winter Wonderland

For me, winter is the happiest time of the year. I love everything about it, though I seem to be the only one around that feels the same way. Every aspect of winter just makes me feel warm and contented; yes that sounds cheesy and very contradictory, since winter is the coldest time of the year. I love the soft, powdery clumps of unique snowflakes falling to the ground; I love the deep layers of snow covering the wet roads and lawns; I love how beautiful it is outside at night when the lights from the lampposts reflect off of the white ground, making the snow sparkle. Most of all, I love the fact that my birthday is in winter, and winter seems to be the biggest holiday season, when everyone is out shopping for presents or celebrating with friends and family. For some reason, I always enjoy the fact that the mall is packed with people walking around, swinging their abundant shopping bags filled with gifts, and wearing Santa hats. And some of the best times in winter for me are when it is snowing outside - not the wet snow that melts right when it touches the ground or my coat, but the soft, delicate snowflakes - and I look up at the sky, and feel the snow falling on my face, and all around there is just a feeling of silence and peace as I gaze up at the gray sky, against which the pure white snow contrasts greatly.

There are three scenarios that I always imagine, when everything is perfect - and they all take place during winter. One is when it is dark outside, and I can hear the snow falling against the windows, but I am sitting on my couch, curled up with a fleece blanket and a cup of hot chocolate (with the little marshmallows), the fire is crackling, the TV is on to some holiday movie, and my dog is lying next to me (though he's on the floor because he isn't allowed on the couch). The second scenario is when I am skiing all alone on a massive mountain, somewhere in Colorado or Utah, with dark trees surrounding me, the sky graying, snow falling gently, and only the sound of my skis scraping against the smooth, packed snow below me to keep me company. The third is when my friends and I go outside at night to the front of our house, and play in the snow, with our neighbors outside, who are running around in the snow as well - we would have snowball fights, build forts, go sledding on the hill nearby, and not even care that at our current ages, we should be acting much more maturely than we are.

Everyone has those moments when they feel that the world is in perfect balance. This whole blog post may make you cringe and think about how cliched everything I've talked about is, but it may also lead you into thinking about your own perfect scenarios in you own perfect world...

Don't Be Lazy

This past fall has been my second year of being on the high school swim team, and I feel that I improved tremendously since my first year. I was a lot less lazy to do what the coach told us to, and I was a lot more committed to the team. I came to every practice (except the morning practice that I accidentally slept through - oops!), and I pushed myself to swim a lot faster. The results were great, and the coaches put me in more meets, and gave me much harder events (such as 100 yard of butterfly stroke) to swim. And in general, the feeling of belonging to a team, and contributing to the school's success, pride, and teamwork was great, no matter how cliched that sounds! Participating in dress-up days, be it 70's day, or rainbow day, and also cheering along with the rest of the team right before a meet, helped me get more excited and motivated to swim even faster and show everyone what I am actually capable of. There were many benefits of participating in the swim team, such as a positive attitude, school spirit, and not to mention the physical advantages of swimming five days a week for three months.

Unfortunately, after those three months ended, the amount of exercise I got went down the drain. I feel that since I wasn't really being forced to swim a certain amount of laps, or jog for a certain amount during "dry land" during practice, I lost my motivation, and I just kept coming up with excuses to not go work out ( such as "I have too much homework" or "I'm too tired from school"). And the amount of time I spent on homework increased greatly, which allowed me less and less sleep each night. At this point, I am working on just getting my lazy butt up and going to exercise at least once in a while, because I know firsthand how helpful and important it is. Hopefully I will get back up to the same fitness level I was at earlier in the school year is, but the bottom line is that getting exercise is vital in helping you get sleep, do your work faster, and just have a better attitude. I know this is constantly repeated, and you are probably thinking, "yeah, yeah, I've heard this all before," but it is all very true, so listen to it.