Turn, Turn, Turn

Okay, okay, I'm going to start out this post by apologizing for everything that comes after this paragraph. The thing is, I live in North Dakota. I was born and raised here and I love this state, okay? I don't care that the summers get so hot it's hard to breathe sometimes, or that it snows nine months out of the year, or even that there are areas of the state more densely populated with cattle than people. So if what comes after this shocks you, don't say I didn't give you fair warning.

I don't think I've ever been this excited for winter to come. It's not that I don't like summer, because I do - I love all four seasons - but I'm ready to move on. Let me explain.

See, for the first 18 years of my life, I lived on a farm, and the seasons defined things pretty clearly for me. Spring was seeding time, summer was spraying time and then harvest time, fall was grain hauling time, and winter brought more grain hauling and planning for the next year. It was a routine, and it didn't change. 

I counted on the seasons. Even if winter was savagely cold and consisted of blizzard after blizzard, spring had to come eventually so Dad could seed. Maybe the spring would be long, cold, and wet, and it would be a struggle to get every seed in the ground, but the sun was going to shine and make those seeds grow, because it did every year. Summer was almost guaranteed to be unbearably hot, there would be thunderstorms, maybe even hail or tornadoes, and at the end of summer, there would be a harvest - whether bountiful or pitiful. And then it would start all over again, because that's what the seasons do.

Now I'm not trying to suggest that the seasons have stopped changing since I left the farm, because clearly they haven't, but they have stopped being so important to me. For the past year, every season has brought the same thing - working, with time off only for the most important things. I've watched working in retail make me bitter and cynical about the entire human race, with no indication that I'll ever feel any differently. 

But this fall, I'm going back to college, and now that I've had time to think about it, I'm incredibly excited. For one thing, despite that whole bitter and cynical thing I was talking about before, I don't think I've ever been happier than I am right now. Right now I have a fairly clear idea of what I'm going to spend my next four years doing, and while the picture gets a little hazier after that, I have a feeling teaching English will be involved. Maybe I'll even write and publish a novel the way I've been dreaming of for over half my life. 

I suppose it's a little ironic that I'm talking about how much I love the seasons changing at the same time I'm talking about how I love the predictability of the seasons changing. Here's how I look at it - I love s'mores, but they taste much better over a campfire in July than over the stove in December. Hot chocolate is delicious, but it's much nicer in January than August. No one wants to drink hot cider in June. Running through a sprinkler or having a water balloon fight in February would be ill-advised. That's why these things are so amazing, because we can't do them all year. 

So on a purely trivial level, I'm excited for winter so I can wear my new gray sweater from maurices. Tights, boots, mittens, warm coats, these are things I haven't used since March, and I miss them! I want to drink hot chocolate as I watch it snow, smell the Thanksgiving turkey roasting, play games with family who never has (makes?) time to get together any other time of year, make Christmas candy, go sledding, decorate a gingerbread house... Shopping for presents is one of my favorite things to do, and Christmas gives me an amazing excuse to buy presents for lots of different people at once. Ooo, and the few Christmas songs that aren't horribly obnoxious always make me happy. Plus there's the Dickens Festival in Garrison, driving around to look at Christmas lights, and just spending time with family. In case I haven't made it clear, Thanksgiving through New Year's Day is my favorite holiday. :) 

So complain all you want about me wanting it to be winter - just don't expect me to sympathize when you're complaining because it is.