The Fourth of July has in fact never been my favorite holiday. Not because I do not appreciate what it stands for, our country gaining independence, but because of what it has become. This holiday has deviated, like many others, from the real reason it is a holiday. Now the Fourth of July is all about fireworks.

We all know when this holiday is approaching us Americans when tents pop up in every large parking lot with obnoxious signs telling us that they have fireworks, like we did not know already. I used to like fireworks a lot; I thought they were utterly beautiful and that we should always set them off (just like I always thought we should have Christmas lights up all year round).

For this reason I never understood why my parents never let us set them off. Until they told me about the times that they worked in the ICU, being a nurse and a doctor; they knew when July 4th was upon them because of the massive amounts of people who came into the hospital with their hands blown off. Believe me, if you had heard the stories I did while growing up, you would never touch another firework in your lifetime.

Despite all of that, I thought they were beautiful, I still do. It is hard not to love colorful explosions in the sky. But I like to look at them from a safe distance away, letting the professionals do it instead of someone in your neighborhood who has never really handled fireworks. (If the professionals put their fireworks on timer and stand back from them, why do we amateurs feel safe lighting them off in our own hands?)

This is not even the real reason I despise fireworks. I hate fireworks because I have known the Fourth of July for many years now as the holiday my dogs hate. I have known this holiday is coming when my dog runs away from the loud fireworks that go off all around our house, and goes into a dark corner somewhere and cries until they are over. Or in my Zoei’s case when she was still alive, she would go into a corner and scratch at the floor because she was trying to dig a hole to get away from the noise.

This sad action would be fine if it was only one day of the year like it used to be; people would only set them off the day of, or maybe up to three days before July 4. But as I have grown up, too many people have decided to set them off up to three weeks before the Fourth of July, and up to two weeks after. That is just excessive. I understand that fireworks are pretty and fun to set off, but I mean a month of setting those things off has to be boring.

I write this to give awareness to those people who do not have dogs, or whose dogs are not afraid of fireworks; please limit your use of fireworks. Don’t use them three weeks before July 4, a week before I understand. I ask -- no, I beg -- I beg you to think of the animals who are terrorized by these noises. Also think about all of the people who have served our country and who have come back here not exactly the same as they were before, because fireworks sound extremely similar to gunshots.

So before you set off fireworks, think about those who would do anything to have the sounds go away forever.