SNOW ANGELS IN MAINE

Dreams had always liked the warm weather of Southern California, where you never really needed to wear a sweater but you could if you wanted to. She had been on vacations to snowy mountain ski lodges and had alway spent the whole time inside under layers of blankets.

But when a New England college offered her a full scholarship she couldn’t say no, and it had an excellent pre-med program apparently too. So she packed up her whole life and flew across the country to the cold state of Maine. Even though she knew it would be cold she was still surprised when she stepped out of the airport and into the cold streets.

She was getting used to it, but still got made fun of when she walked into the classroom all bundled up. And that was just in the fall. Now in the cold cold month of December she was fully realising what living in Maine meant.

She didn’t pay much attention to anything but her destination when leaving her dorms, and she couldn’t really has she had a scarf wrapped up to her nose and a hat pulled over just about the rest of her face.

And today was no different as she hurried over to her early morning class, the worst since the warmth of the sun hasn’t quite warmed up the atmosphere. There was a fresh layer of snow on the ground and foot prints dotted the yard. But Dreams didn’t pay attention to it, she just saw the snow as another flaw of Maine.

And as if to prove her point she made a wrong step and fell flat on her face, the snow stinging all of her exposed face. She pushed herself up quickly and stopped to take a breath. She tried to warm up her now frozen face by putting her arm over it but discovered that it was too cold to do much of anything but make it colder.

“Ugh,” She groaned.

She closed her eyes and just stood there, feeling the cold seep into her shoes. She realized she needed to get moving or she’d be late, or worse she’d get frostbite and die.

She laughed bitterly and opened her eyes finally noticing all of the snow angels dotting the yard.

“What?” she said to herself.

She was thinking how could anyone want to actually roll around in this snow, and probably wearing those thin jackets she’s seen a bunch of people wear around here.

But after her initial reaction she realized there was something kind of cool about people taking a pause in their day to just stop and roll around in the snow, like it was some kind of fun.

She laughed again, but not so bitter this time. This time she laughed because it was honestly funny that this California girl was standing in the cold surrounded by a foot of snow dotted with snow angels. And she thought it was coo. And kind of majestic.

And with that thought brightening her day a bit she trudged back on to get into the warmth of the building.