Wintertime brings warm thoughts to many. The mere mention of the word conjures up thoughts of Christmas music, decorations, newly fallen snow, and endless opportunities for festive Starbucks Instagram posts. Though the holiday season is undoubtedly one of the happiest and best times of the year, for many, winter also brings some of the hardest months you’ll ever endure.

The second the Christmas tree and decorations come down, the reality sinks in. Your presents have been opened and you’ve eaten more food than you thought possible, and now you must deal with winter. The novelty of the season has worn off, and you now scroll through the months in your phone calendar, counting down the days till warmer weather comes. You begin to realize that you have several long, cold months ahead of you, and you groan at the thought of having to ever go back out into the biting cold again. The days now give only a few hours of sunlight, leaving you wondering when’s the last time you really saw daylight. You long for spring break, a chance to escape your bone-chilling world for a week. You anticipate your flight to sunny paradise, suddenly realizing just why nearly every elderly person on earth lives in Florida. For those of us who must remain home for spring break, you begin adding shows to watch to your Netflix, anticipating the coming days of hibernation.

A Chicago native myself, I find the winter months to be much like eggnog. Fantastic at first, something that makes you wonder how you went all year without it. Though, after several days or weeks of enjoying it, you start wanting nothing to do with it. Simple tasks such as walking a block or running an errand become entire adventures in themselves. A simple five minute journey now requires ten minutes of layering on closets full of clothing, things that will only keep you from getting cold for just a little longer than normal. Driving turns into a mix of keeping your foot hovering over the break, and struggling to control your barely running car. Sledding stops being as much fun as it turns into you purposefully covering yourself in snow, and always leaves you wondering, “Why?” Simple tasks of every day life have now been made painfully difficult, and you realize just how much you’re freezing at any given moment.

As we look forward to the holidays as the temperatures begin to drop, the countdown to days of struggling through the cold are on the horizon. The pure white snow, blanketing the world and making you stare with awe just weeks before, has now become a grey slush that soaks you no matter how many layers you wear. This season has now become just as stale and unappealing as those sprinkle cookies you left out overnight. You’re now officially past the cheeriness of the holiday season, and have to face the cold hard facts; it’s wintertime.