Wintertime: A Little Lament

Early nights. Biting winds. Freezing rain.

No, I mean actual freezing rain.

Wintertime has always been rough for me. The long periods of darkness, coupled with hours upon hours of being cooped up inside, are a recipe for disaster. Fatigue settles upon me even more so than usual, and there is a constant feeling of dread and anxiety.

When I was young, my mother once told me that I seemed “so much happier” when spring arrived at the end of a long winter.

But moving to a different state (and a much different climate), winter quickly grew a different meaning.

Freezing rain. That’s it. No pretty snow, perfect for snowball fights. No scenes of winter serenity to see outside of my window. Just freezing rain, which quickly becomes ice.

Of course, that ice means more time cooped up inside. The biting cold hasn’t helped either. As of writing this blog post, I’m six days into the semester, and my university has been closed for two of them.

So, I’ve had to try to cope and take back the joy that winter had been sucking out of me.

Soup, and overall cooking, has helped. Nothing warms up the body and the mind like a warm bowl of soup and some tea, after all. While I don’t have all the cooking resources I would want in my apartment, I did some good on my yearly goal of cooking more to make a tortellini soup, which lasted me through much of the worst cold.

Reading has helped, too, but it unfortunately hasn’t led to much writing. I’ve already read 4 books this year, and have 2 more checked out from the library to read. Writing, though, has been a bit difficult to come by, except for a day or two where I actually managed to focus. I even meant to post a writing piece this week, but just couldn’t get myself to finish it.

Of course, wanting to publish a novel (really, multiple novels) means I do have to write, though. I just have to be kinder to myself about it. Draftdash, an event happening on Tumblr where I have to write 15 mins each day, has helped, and I’m hoping to participate in more events (such as ockiss week and Writeblr Cafe’s Secret Valentine) to keep me going as winter continues. 

I know I’m not very elegant when I say this, but: winter sucks. I know I must live with it, but I’m not really a fan. So, I’ll have to find some ways to cope, and some things to keep me motivated.

Hey, at least next winter, I’ll have my novel to keep me happy.