Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
When the weather takes a chilly turn, I find it hard to get motivated to do anything.
Whether it is doing my homework, going to work or just getting out of bed in the morning to get a cup of coffee, the drive simply isn’t there.
Not surprisingly, this feeling rears its ugly head even more as rainy, gloomy seasons descend upon us. My friends and relatives tell me they feel the same thing when the weather is cold and the sunshine retreats.
While I am aware that there is a disorder associated with one’s mood in relation to the weather known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), I don’t believe I suffer from it as this lack of motivation doesn’t always show up when the depressing weather sets in.
I recognize SAD as a serious medical condition, one which causes many to suffer, but I believe I follow the same pattern as the majority who are unaffected. When something seems depressing, it makes me feel the same way.
The same goes for the opposite — I love the sun and it makes me smile when I wake up in the morning and see it peeking through my window. But how much of this has been a learned response?
The sun makes me ready to face the day and tackle whatever comes my way. We learn this in grade school books — our sunshine pictures smile, our clouds wear perpetual frowns and weep their rain.
But still, with this in mind, my mood remains unaltered.
With winter approaching, I find myself becoming like everyone else who complains about the remaining unexpected and unwanted heat of the dying summer, opting for the cold. But as soon as I confront the cold, I know I’ll begin to complain about the iciness and wish for the warmth to envelope my world once more.
Who wants to get up and go to class or work when there is so much snow on the ground that the whole world looks like one massive snowball, at once quite beautiful but then again aggravating in its inability to yield to a shovel. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one complaining.
But I can handle the pretty white stuff. I’ve been raised with snow all my life — I’ve come to expect it, even want it, when the calendar flips forward to November and December. I think the main thing that really gets to me about the seasons and their respective weather is the color in which they are presented to me.
If I see a white background, it makes me think of everything as clean and new. When I see the sun, I immediately refer to a brightness of being, a smile flashing across our atmosphere. At the sight of rain, I feel melancholy and weepy. I really don’t think we give the weather enough credit for making us feel the way we do.
We need to make ourselves remember that the weather is good for the environment and us as well.
The next time you feel like complaining about the weather, stop and think about why you are utilizing something like snow to condone your dreary attitude. Perhaps we can find the motivation to get up and do things even when it’s raining if we demand of ourselves an internal responsibility for our actions.
Let this be the sunshine that I passed on to you so you can smile and conquer your doldrums the next time you think the weather is affecting you.
Counter your cop-out and make it through the day without feeling like there is nothing that can be accomplished by keeping these words in mind.
Amanda Greenberg is a fourth-year journalism student.
