Least Favorite Season

This week’s journal entry:

What’s your least favorite season and why?

By Laura Black

            Well, this seems appropriate after this past week of arctic blast in Illinois, so I decided to pick this topic as this week’s journal entry.

            My least favorite season is, by far, winter. I absolutely HATE winter. I hate being cold. I would rather be hot any day. I wonder why I live in such a cold state. I’ve lived here all my life, and I’m always questioning why.

            It’s not bad in the summer months, but the other seasons are always questionable. Winter, however, is, by far, the worse season of all. This past week being the perfect example of why. On any given day in winter in Illinois, it can go from 50 degrees to -50, as we witnessed on Wednesday. That’s just ridiculous!

            I know some people think winter can be fun with the different winter sports. For me, that’s not an option. Like I said before, I hate being cold, so in no way, shape, or form do I want to be outside for any reason in winter unless necessary. No sport outside in winter seems worth the effort to me.

            I hate winter for other reasons beyond it being so cold. I hate snow. I hate shoveling it, cleaning off the car, and most of all I hate driving in it. It’s messy, wet, and cold.

            I remember as a kid I loved playing in the snow. My siblings and me would bundle up in our layers, grab our snow blocks to build a snow fort, and we’d be out there for what seemed like hours. I honestly couldn’t tell you how long we’d be out there, but I do remember my mom would make us come in to warm up for a while, then we could go back out later.

            We also used to love going sledding at Hart’s Hill, a local park with a great hill to sled down. Our parents would load us up in the car with our sleds, and we’d head out to Hart’s Hill for a few hours. I remember still going there as a teenager with all my friends too. That was always a blast.

            So, I guess I didn’t always hate winter. As an adult, though, I grew to hate it. I guess as soon as I had to drive in it is when the hate began. I remember when I lived in Joliet and worked in Oak Brook, I had a normal drive time of an hour and a half. I remember during one particular snow storm, it took me three hours to get home. It was horrible! And, that’s when the hate started.

            The only good thing about winter to me is that I have more time to sit inside and read. I do love to read, so any chance I get to sit and read is awesome to me. In fact, I set a new reading record for myself in the month of January. I read seven books in one month.

            About two years ago, I started keeping track of how many books I read each month. I write down the month, then I list the title and author under the month. I found myself wanting to read a book, but I couldn’t always remember if I read it before or not. So, this is my solution.

            On a normal month, I’m lucky if I get through one or two books. Usually once school starts and the papers start coming in, I rarely have time to read. I always try to read each night before going to sleep, but I usually can’t stay awake long enough to read too much.

            In January, I had a lot of time off, so I’ve had more time to read beyond just at bedtime. In fact, I read two books alone within this past week with all the extra time I had off due to school closings.

            It’s a good thing that I’m reading a lot. For me, the winter months make me depressed and stir crazy. I’m not the type of person that can sit still for a long period of time. I either like to keep busy, or I get bored; however, a good book can get me to sit and read for hours.

            Once I get into a good book, I just want to keep reading. I don’t want to stop, and I don’t want to do anything else but that. That’s how I’ve been lately. All I want to do is sit and read. I just want to seclude myself from the world and not be bothered. Of course, that’s not reality. I was able to read a lot, but I also had plenty of time to keep up with real life, too. Now, if I could only keep that balance every month. I won’t be able to read as much in the next few months once school is back into full swing, but I will always continue to read.

            Reading, for me, helps to relax and calm me down. In the winter months more specifically, reading helps me to stay sane. Because I don’t want to go outside during winter, it will keep me busy and help with me going stir crazy inside.

            So, that’s my least favorite season. How about you? What’s your least favorite season and why?