As a bred and raised southerner, winter in Ann Arbor to me conjures up images of snow! I still get giddy and exclaim, “There’s white stuff falling from the sky!” every time it snows. And although it may be a pain to constantly be cleaning and digging my car out of the snow, I still love it. I made my first real snow angel last year after we got a foot or two of snow, went sledding for the first time (with cardboard boxes), and got out to some nearby “large hills” for a snowboarding trip or two. So far I’ve been to Mt. Brighton, Alpine Valley, and Pine Knob, and each place offers enough to suffice for at least a day trip. What else is there to do? There’s plenty of good hot chocolate and coffee around town to indulge in. Detroit offers an outdoor ice rink at Campus Martius Park, which was a blast for me since I took figure skating lessons while growing up but never had the experience of skating outdoors. And of course the weather makes it a great time to have dinner and wine with friends, to watch the Super Bowl together, and to celebrate the coming of the Lunar New Year.
One question I frequently get as a non-northerner is this: How was the adjustment to Michigan winter? I apparently love snow, so that’s not an issue at all (though I admit it took me a while to figure out how to drive in it). I think the hardest part of the transition was getting used to seeing the daylight fade away before 5 p.m., and going days at a time under cloudy, gloomy skies. I also had to go add a whole new collection of clothes to my wardrobe, and now all my “southern winter clothes” have been converted to fall attire. Still, that was an excuse to go shopping, and feeling like I’m inside of a snow globe from my desk during the day more than makes up for it.
Winter for me this year means truly getting started on my dissertation work. I managed to pass my candidacy exam last semester (you might remember the blog post I wrote in December when I was still going through the process), so it’s on to the next step—research. I feel a little nervous and excited about it at the same time, but overall I’m going to head into this new year with an optimistic mind.
For me, winter is also a time to set new goals along with the coming of a new year. One of my goals for this year is to stop rushing myself to various checkpoints—to slow down and make some good memories in 2012. Have you stopped to think about what you want to accomplish in the upcoming year yet?
Published in: Student Voices
Keywords: social life health & wellness