I grew up playing outdoors for eight barefooted months each year.
I lived on an island for five years before moving to New England.
I started tanning on the beach in early March, five weeks before my wedding, so I would have that sun-kissed glow.
Then I moved up here.
Was there any way I could’ve prepared for the drastic drop in the hours of exposure to natural sunlight? How could I have anticipated my mild bouts with Seasonal Affective Disorder? And who knew that my worst round would pummel me the first summer that we were here? They said that snowstorms have hit in early May. They said that the chill doesn’t fade until June. But I couldn’t wrap my mind around eight months of winter. And the disappointment was unbearable. The disappointment sunk me so low that I didn’t want to get out of bed in the morning. The disappointment flat-out depressed me.
Now, summers are more manageable. I know what’s coming. But, Februarys? They remain undeterred. Locals were dead serious in saying that even though February is the shortest month of the year, it can feel like the longest. They were right. Twenty-eight days of cold. Twenty-eight days of silence – no birds – no animals – no life outside. Twenty-eight days of waiting for March to bring longer days and April to bring buds of flowers springing up through the snow.
For the next twenty-eight days I’ll be battling a personal war within. A war to wake up motivated. Wake up content. Wake up energized.
This time, though – this time I’m entering the battle happier than I’ve been in a LONG time…
And I think I’m gonna win.
::
What about you? Do you struggle with anything like this? What does your personal pep-talk sound like?
I’m gonna post on behalf of my wife who I dragged to Australia from Ireland. She misses the grey…sometimes (actually, more often than she admits).
Having just gone through our hottest January in some years (though nothing like further south – lots of people dead from the heat), her personal pep-talk sounds something like this : “I love air conditioning”
very much (do i struggle with it)
and my personal pep-talk sounds something like:
“quit your b*^ching… at least you can turn up your heat.”
i like to guilt trip myself.
So Cal doesn’t have a winter, but I wish we did.
I’m growing increasingly tired of 90º+ days in JANUARY.
Not that I want 8 months of winter…just some semblance of cooler weather.
So I guess mine is kind of the opposite? My biggest motivation to get out of the bed in the morning is needing to turn up the fan.
P.S. February is my toughest month to get through too…
Mine is not so much caused by the weather….afterall,I live in the 8 months a year of sunshine. I have two noticeable cycles….one starts in mid August and goes through mid November and then one that is shorter in the spring. Usually starts the beginning of March and is over by the middle of April. Now that I know these are trouble spots for me, I can prepare myself for it. I allow myself more down time to recover and sometimes I just have to say no to things that I could normally handle. Some days it is all I can do to get out of bed and go to work but I am usually okay after I get up and get going.
That is one of the biggest thing I’ve noticed moving to Cincinnati from Buffalo! There’s sun here!! No 6 months of grey, blah, no color!!
I never had a problem with the winter months (or at least, I never noticed) until last year. For the first time in my life I had to force myself to get up and go to work because I wanted nothing more than to stay curled up on the couch with the TV on but not watching. Lasting about two months, it was one of the worst times I have experienced so far. I haven’t noticed the downward spiral yet, so maybe I’m going to be OK this season.
Now I know why they call it SAD…
Sorry you battle this, Mandy. Living smack dab in the middle of the country like I do, we have four solid seasons. But I still hate the winter. Mark and I have considered moving to a few different cities for my (future) career, including a few north of here. This winter has been colder than the last several and I told him a few weeks ago that we ARE. NOT. MOVING. NORTH. Not to Minneapolis. Not to Chicago. Not to Des Moines. And not even to Liberty, a suburb 10 minutes north of our house.
you’ll make it girl.
i’ll just send you videos of california.
but then, i’ll be jealous of you when we get wildfires next month (probably).
I totally hear your heart on this because I am SO there. Seriously.
My husband and his sunburn-through-a-T-shirt feel your pain.
I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona so moving to Oregon has been difficult. The rain, the fog, the rain, the cold…did I mention the rain? I like all the green around, but wow does it come at a high price of constant cloud coverage. I find myself longing for the sun and the warmth.
I’ve been there. I understand completely.
Today?
I’m going barefoot!!
No fair! Barefoot, Michelle!
That’s my favorite!!!
Well, I grew up with winter, but … not 8 months of it (like up here, so I identify). The winter lasts forever up here. And I just relish the sandals and tank tops so much when it’s summer – I rarely turn the AC on in my car. Windows down; let me feel the summer!!
i wish i could be a little sunshine in your days right now…
Well, Mandy,you definitely wouldn’t want to live on the Canadian prairies. I consider New England warm compared to what we suffer through here.
( And it has been like this since the beginning of November with only a few warm days that have seen a balmy 25 to 30 degrees.
It has been a bitterly cold winter here,unusual even by our standards. Nights are usually -30f without the wind factor. Days, it warms up to -25 F. That is still 57 degrees below the melting point of water.We have had entire weeks where the temperatures with the windchill was -40F to -50 F and that is depressing
How do I cope? Well, I never really get used to it, but I try to get as much sun and excercise as possible. February and even March are difficult months, for sure . But now look forward to these months since I am fanatical about cross country skiing and these simply are the best two months for it. So I actually look forward to February now. Years ago I was very depressed about the seemingly endless winters, but its a lot easier for me to cope now.
And months from now this same frozen hell will get up to 95 degrees Fahrenheit; everyone will be running to the beach and the air conditioners will hum and the miserable winter will be entirely forgotten.
That I live in a place that can go from polar to tropical and back in a matter of 3-4 months never fails to amuse and amaze me.
“28 days of Grande non-fat 6 pump with whip no water chai lattes…” that’s what my pep talks sound like….only in America though.