Wintertime can be a nice relief from the scorching summer days. However, it can also be a great inconvenience to all who despise the one digit temperatures. If you're not from an area that experiences frostbitten winters, the extreme temperatures might be a shock to you.
I was born in Southern California and had only seen snow or experienced the extreme cold during my family's excursions to the mountains. So when I moved to Idaho in late April I had no idea what I was in for. I grew up in an area where the humidity excelled. Man, was my first winter brutal. I wish there had been a brochure or something that they give you when you first move to Idaho about the winter and how to survive it, because I was at a total loss. The first snow I saw wasn't even snow, it was hail.
I was disappointed, to say the least. Hail is definitely not as forgiving and soft as snow. The worst part about the chunks of ice falling from the sky is that they either just freeze to the roads or melt just to refreeze over the streets. There is no winning in either situation. It's also a little difficult to make "snow" angels in the ice, it just doesn't work the same.
The one good thing that did come from these freak storms were snow days. I had never experienced a snow day until I moved to Idaho so I never truly understood the hype created around them. But I can honestly say now that as a young child, there is nothing more exciting than waking up super early in the morning and seeing nothing but fluffy white snow outside and turning on the news to see your school's name scrolling on the list of closed schools. This means that you get to go out and play in the snow all day. But with the snow comes the extreme cold. While this might not seem like a big deal, coming from California, I am not used to the cold. I start complaining about the cold when it's 60 degrees outside. I understand now, after living in Idaho for close to 9 years, that 60 degrees is a blessing. But when I first moved here, 60 degrees was way too cold for me. When I would go outside my fingers and toes immediately went blue and numb. After some time adjusting they would go back to normal but man, it was not fun.
The real struggle didn't come until I had to learn how to drive in the snow. Driving in the rain? Not a big deal for me. But driving in the snow and ice? Now that's a completely different story. The first time I had to drive in the snow was after a long and hard day at work. It wasn't supposed to snow until after I got off of work so I wouldn't have to worry about it. However, I was mistaken, it started snowing right when I got to work. 5 hours later and my car was buried under 5 inches of snow and ice. So I set off on my first experience of driving in the snow. What would usually take me a 20-minute drive home turned into an hour drive home while going a constant speed of 20 miles per hour. To this day it was, by far, the worst winter storm I've had to drive through.
After much practice and years of living in the snow, I have now come to appreciate all the little details in the cold. The way the grass freezes overnight and leaves perfectly crafted ice crystals on the ground. Or how I now appreciate a warm cup of coffee before starting my morning. The silent white mornings seeing the kids across the street frolicking in the snow and enjoying everything that nature has to offer. So while it might be difficult to shift from the warmth of California to the cold of Idaho, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have experienced both sides of the temperature spectrum.
