Tag: winter
The Poetry Snapshot: strength is undefinable
I’ve been told to stay strong.
not cry
be the rock
pull it together
and I’ve succeeded.
I’ve successfully built a wall around me,
locked up my emotions, and lost the key.
All this time I thought someone else
would have a spare,
so I’ve been looking for myself in others.
But when has a locked door
stopped a prisoner from escaping.
Perhaps, I need to bring down these walls
with the same strength that built them.
Because there is nothing weak about
vulnerability.
This poem was inspired by a recent opportunity that allowed me to let my guard down and share a personal story to the public. After years of thinking that my strength came from internalizing my story, I realized that sharing it and allowing it to be a beacon of hope for others was my real display of strength. Strength is not limited to the constraints set by the media that showcases our lives filtered and perfected, and a culture of always putting on a happy face. Breaking through those constraints and embracing the authenticity of being vulnerable, accepting mistakes, and needing help is also a display of strength.
What to do on a snowday?
Once the University of Michigan cancelling classes for two days in a row, I thought to myself “Hooray! I’m going to catch up on sleep for the next two days!” Then I tried to remember what I did on snow days during elementary and high school. I would play outside for the day, or have friends over to play inside. So I decided that maybe instead of sleeping for the next two days I could do something else. So here is a list of things that I might do during our snow-days.
Movie Marathons! I am a huge fan of movies, my favorite genres are romcoms, sci-fi, and thrillers. When creating a movie marathon you have the choice of watching a bunch or random movies, movies with the same theme, or a movie series. Watching random movies is good so that you do not get too bored when watching a couple movies in one sitting. This way you can laugh, cry, and get scared in one day; which can be more exciting. Watching movies from the same genre, or with the same theme can give you an extra dose of whatever feeling you want. Watching a movie series gives you purpose when you are sitting watching a movie, because you now have to finish the series. I personally like watching movie series. You can always re-watch Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.
Read! As a college student, I never do any reading for pleasure during the school year because I am constantly reading for my classes. Taking two days to start and possibly finish a book that has been sitting unread in my bookshelf would be great. Cold weather is also the perfect reading conditions because then you are incentivized to sit in a chair curled up with a blanket and a book and are able to read for hours. It’s also nice when you are sitting by a window that brings in natural light and so that you can look outside but you do not have to go outside.
Game night! The last activity is better if there is someone else with you. A game night or afternoon is always fun and relaxing, depending on the game. I used to play a lot of board games growing up with my family, and I have not played them much since going to college. I love when an opportunity comes up and I can play them again. The best games to play during snow days are games that take a long time because you have all of the time in the world. I personally like to play Risk when I have a couple of hours to spend on a game.
Indoor Home Garden
Winter in the midwest is the time for everyone to stay inside and wait until April before venturing outside, it’s too cold to go outside and play. In the southern hemisphere winter is the time for people to be outside and enjoy the nice weather. Over winter break I was lucky enough to take a 10 day trip to Ecuador and learn all about food sustainability. The winter season for them is when they start to plant their crops so that they will grow nice and large for picking season in the late summer.
This got me thinking about planting in the midwest in the winter. It is too cold to go outside and enjoy gardening, but it is the perfect time to start a small indoor garden of your own. Some very good indoor plants that are hard to kill are string of pearls, succulents, and prayer plant. Succulents are already very popular and famous for not needing much attention, but these other plants are also easy to keep alive and they will add some color to your room/house.
Other plants are nice to have in your home because they have a purpose. Some purify the air, some can calm you down. The Peace Lily and Snake plant are great for purifying the air, and they only need minimum light to keep alive, which is great for winter months when there isn’t much sunlight. Other plants like aloe and lavender are great to have to calm down and help you sleep.
The last type of plants that are great to have indoors all year round are edible plants. Some herbs that are easy to grow, and can be useful very often are basil, thyme, and parsley. These plants are easy to grow, and will be very useful when cooking. Another good plant to grow is mint, but that is a little harder to grow inside.
While winter is a time to stay inside, it doesn’t have to be the time to stop gardening. These are just some of the easiest indoor plants to grow, but there are almost unlimited options to start growing an indoor home garden.
Winter Olympics 2018: Curling, Speed Skating
The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea starts this Thursday. The Winter Olympics has less sports than the Summer Olympics and with it a smaller audience. The names of the sports of curling and speed skating are well known, yet their rules are not.
Curling is a team sport that is played on a sheet of ice. Most people compare curling to shuffle board, only on the ice and with a team. The teams of four players push a 40 pound granite rock down the ice and try to get it as close to a target as possible. Two teams compete against each other, and the team who gets closest to the target wins. One player throws the rock and the others sweep in front of it to try and help the rock keep straight and hit the target. If no one swept in front of the rock then the rock would curl, or veer left and right. The sweeping keeps the rock straight. Each team throws sixteen rocks, with each player throwing twice. Scoring the game is the team who has more rocks closer to the center than the other team.
When people hear the sport of speed skating they think that it is pretty self explanatory. Speed skating is essentially track on ice with players skating around the ice arena at different distances. The races are separated between men and women with 7 different events, 5 individual, 1 team pursuit and 1 mass start. The team pursuit is when three athletes start on opposite sides of the oval and skate six or eight laps. The winning team is the team who has all three athletes cross first. The winning team moves on to the next round and the losing team is eliminated. The mass start event is a sixteen lap race where all 24 athletes race at once instead of only having two athletes racing in elimination style. Mass starts also have sprint points which athletes can gain during laps four, eight, twelve, and sixteen. In each of these laps the top three finishers get extra points. These points are added to the points that the first, second, and third place athlete get.
The Winter 2018 Olympics are starting in less than a week and there are many sports to watch that are not always in the spotlight. Curling and speed skating are two of them that will be in the spotlight over the next two weeks.
Fashion a la Polar Vortex
I feel like if I were to remember one thing about 2014 it wouldn’t be me finishing my thesis (GODDESS PLEASE LET ME), graduating, travelling, whatever . . . it would be surviving not only the first polar vortex but the second one.
The first day since ‘78 that the University of Michigan has cancelled classes. We all know this but BOOM. This is/was exciting. I had a four day weekend. I went out on a Monday.
Besides these obvious points, however, there are some other things that I cannot get out of my mind: snow/cold/chill protective outfits. In short, people’s clothing is heinous. I am (not) some queen heckling on the side of the road, but people have gone absolutely off the cliff.
1. It is -40 degrees.
I have been sick for months, and just got sick again. I’m feeling better but I know I need to cover my mouth. I have maroon skinny jeans on, a maroon winter coat with fake fur, I have a maroon baseball cap on with accompanying scarf and red headphones-as-ear-muffs. I have layers of glasses to protect my eyes and gloves on gloves on gloves. And then someone jogs by me in a spandex body suit and that’s it. And then someone saunters back from the gym in shorts. And then I see someone model walk with their coat WIDE OPEN as they cross the street. I don’t know who ya’ll are but I’m judging you. You might feel like you can stand the cold but your frozen flesh-skin-ice and I think differently. I try so hard not to judge or shame people for what they do or do not wear (because really why should I) BUT ITS SO DAMN COLD I GET COLDER JUST LOOKING AT YOU.
2. It is 30 degrees.
I’m healthy and have stopped putting a scarf over my face, and so people now walk on the same side of the road as me and don’t point as I walk down the sidewalk at them (apparently I look intimidating or eccentric as all get out). I have a reasonable amount of clothing on (basically the same thing as the -40 degree weather but this time I’m less hunched over and I might be singing/breathing the cool air in). And then someone walks by in a 7-layer black body suit and a yellow neon hat pulled OVER THEIR EYES. Hello?
3. It is 0 degrees.
It’s 11:30 at night and I leave my coat in the car; I have just arrived in Ypsi for the drag show. I start to run down the road at full speed in my skinny jeans, polka-dot top, necklace flying up and hitting my face, both hands on the hair to protect it from frizzing out . . . and then I slip. I’m screaming now, full volume, as onlookers, wrapped up in 15 layers, point at the disheveled queer sliding his way into the bar. We all can’t be winners.
The Polar Vortex has come and gone and come again. Each time we are surprised and we cope differently. But one thing remains constant: no one knows how to dress when its negative-you’re-going-to-die-temperature. And that is a subtle art of surviving in Michigan. Because at least if you’re frozen, you can still be one hot mess.
