Snow in Houston means so much more than most people will understand.
*Cue Northerners to either exit the page or start complaining about how it "wasn't really snow"*
For the record, it was actually snow that stuck to the ground. Real actual freaking snow for anyone who wants to argue that point.
Houston has been through so much this year. From hosting the Superbowl, to Hurricane Harvey, to winning our first World Series, to actual snow in December.
It's been quite a roller coaster.
But that roller coaster is exactly why seeing snow in Houston made me cry the happiest tears a girl possibly could. Now, yes I was excited because being a born and bred Houstonian, I've seen ice before but NEVER snow like this. But it was so much more than that.
In August, we all had to sit and watch helplessly as Mother Nature had her way with our shoreline, our towns, our homes, our people. We had to sit and watch as everything we loved sank underwater.
The rain seemed to never end. I just remember every hour of the day looking outside and it was pouring on top of roads already submerged in water.
I remember hearing of friends and loved ones being evacuated from their homes by boat. Knowing that when some of them went back, there wouldn't be a home left to go too.
And as if the water wasn't enough, my neighborhood was hit with back to back tornadoes.
Houston was scared of what was happening and there was nothing we can do.
Every time is sprinkled in the months following Harvey there was a silence around town.
A silence that felt like the darkest blackness you had ever felt. The sheer terror that the rain would keep coming -- that we were going to be flooded once again.
By the sheer grace of God, Texans pulled together and pulled off one of the fastest natural disaster recoveries ever seen.
As the months went on, we have come back bigger and stronger than ever. Never forgetting.
When the snow starting sticking to the ground, a new feeling washed over the city of Houston.
A feeling of hope, of new, of love, of happiness. The Mother Nature that had only a few months ago brought about our destruction was now blessing us with the gift of snow.
To see roads once submerged, covered in white. Families still struggling to recover, running around catching snowflakes and building snowmen like nothing in the world could touch them.
It was absolutely beautiful. The city I love has been through hell and back this year. But I can tell you, I've never seen Houston so proud and so beautiful.
