One of my previous articles likely made where I grew up seem pretty incredible. I can’t deny it’s a nice place to live, but as I was growing up, I didn’t think it was as great. The rest of this article contains some of what I considered underwhelming as a child.

In elementary school, we always did some sort of project. What comes to mind the most are those projects we did during the winter. I never quite understood why we cut out snowmen or even talked about snow. I remember being read a book about winter and how our teacher told us “It snows just about everywhere else except Florida.” Needless to say, eight-year-old me was not too fond of that.

No school before Labor Day? Funny story! I was amazed when my cousins in Pennsylvania would tell me they didn’t start school until September. We children of Florida (and other southern states I’m sure) were used to starting school in August, and early August at that! At a younger age, I felt as if I was being gypped of my summer. When I later learned that the length of summer vacation was roughly the same regardless of school start date, I felt better about it.

It’s no secret that Florida is very warm, especially in the summertime. As a result, a lot of Floridians have pools. I definitely loved having a pool as a kid, but it came with a bit of a price. There is also a retention pond behind my house. The combination of pool and pond left me with no backyard. I don’t have any memories of a swing set or being able to run free. A couple of my good friends had backyards, so I spent as much time with them as I could.

Something that would come as a surprise to many is that Florida homes rarely have basements. Naturally, I didn’t have a basement while I was growing up. This didn’t have any effect on me until I went in the basement at my grandmother’s house. My cousin and I had a play kitchen down there and we had our very own restaurant business. It was pretty difficult to tear me away from the basement when we left to go back to Florida.

I didn’t have a deprived childhood by any means, but I think what I wanted most was to see and play in the snow. I certainly get plenty of it now in college! In Massachusetts, I’m able to experience everything I listed. I like to think they’re all just as fun to enjoy now as they would have been as a child.