The big story this week is snow. A weather pattern that either brings annoyance or pure joy to people. Depending on what region of the country you live in also tends to affect how you react to snow. Down here in the south it means the second you hear on the news that we might POSSIBLY get snow, you immediately rush to the nearest supermarket and buy as much bread and milk as you can. Even though we'll probably only get around 3-4 inches, but hey, as most southerners explain to me, better to be safe than sorry.

Up in the north people give an exasperated eye roll when they hear it's going to snow because it means that they're either going to have an enjoyable snowfall or be trapped in their houses for a couple days due to being barricaded inside by the snow that has accumulated to about 4-5 feet. The most significant thing about northerners when it comes to snow, though, is that they are prepared for the snowfall. They don't freak out and assume that the gates of Hell have been unleashed when white flakes begin to fall from the sky. My family and I always like to joke about how snow down in the south really brings out the crazies. People in the south just don't know how to handle the snow properly. Here are 5 things about snow in the south that occur every time.They don't know how to drive safely on it or what to do if their car starts sliding on the ice. The school systems down here are so indecisive about whether or not to cancel school over the snow and tend to make their decision around 5 am the morning of to give you a nice wake-up phone call about it. Even though everything will close down when it snows, there is always a few chain businesses that stay open and force their employees to come into work even though the roads are disastrous and ill fit to drive on. The people who manage the roads down here sometimes will salt the main roads but never salt the neighborhoods. So the main roads are a lot safer to drive on, but people can't get out of their neighborhood to even drive on the main roads. Snow in the south is just one huge cluster of chickens running around with their heads cut off. Every time. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Maybe I'm just too hopeful that the south will finally adapt and be prepared for the snow for once, but I guess that might be a fool's dream.

Now not everything about snow in the south is terrible. I will say that when it snows down here people usually make the BEST homemade food you will ever eat. This typically revolves around soups like chicken noodle, potato, gumbo, and so on. I mean when you come inside after playing in the snow for a while and you're cold to the bone, eating some homemade, hot, delicious soup is one of the best things to ever happen to you. Down here in the south we also have to find other conventional means for enjoying the snow because we don't really get a lot of it and we have a relatively flat landscape. So that's when people will bust out the four-wheelers. I know personally with my family we take two things of pull rope and tie them to the four-wheeler. Then we sit on two sleds and hold on to the rope handle while our dad drives us around, slinging us back and forth. Southern activities in the snow may not seem the most usual or generic, but we make do with what we have and make the most out of the situation

The best way to describe southern snow is that it is a phenomenon. It brings out the best and worst of people every time. Of course, it will always dumbfound me that people down here will react the same way every time it snows, but by now I just sort of expect it. However, I am appreciative of the fact that we don't get a ton of snow. I can only imagine the disater that would bring.