Is it too convenient that seasonal affective disorder is abbreviated as SAD?
The weather outside is getting frightful, the sun is setting mere minutes after I feel fully awake, and I can feel a gloomy, rainy winter creeping up. Before college, I could always tell when the weather shifts got to my mom because we'd suddenly be eating spicy Mongolian hot pot all the time, or dinners would be announced by the warm perfume of sesame oil and ginger on the stove. Now I just feel it in my creaking bones, in how it is near impossible to leave my bed in the morning, and in how often my professors are reminding me of their final schedules.
But California doesn’t have seasons, you argue. Say that again to all the worms that appeared out of nowhere to drown on the sidewalk. And again to my sudden Vitamin D deficiency. That's a big enough departure from Hollywood-perfect, Californian beach weather to be counted as a seasonal change, methinks.
In the three-ish weeks of true fall weather we’ve had so far here in Stockton, I’ve found and quickly cycled through three ways to deal with the associated misery, doom, and gloom of cold weather and incoming finals.
The usual disclaimers apply: Your mileage may vary, and I also want to offer a gentle reminder that retail therapyisn’t the answer either. (But go right ahead if that Black Friday sale really inspires you…)
With that said, the first way is to give up. Succumb to the cold, skip all of your morning classes, and lock yourself in your room with only very brief expeditions outside to grab hot soup for dinner. Don’t even think about wearing real pants again— sweats are to become your past, present, and future.
I can’t recommend this method— which would probably put a strain on your grades, relationships, and overall health— but it really is the easiest.
If a slow deterioration of your academic and social life doesn’t sound optimal, you could fight the seasonal change. Refuse to give up your right to flip flops and exposed calves and go fist-to-fist with fall. This would be a more temporary fix, because your devotion to short-sleeves and denial can only go so far until you get a cold.
And finally, a third option.
You know those mini pumpkins that decorate every conceivable location around this time of year? Apparently, if you take one and carelessly throw it into a compost heap, its seeds can grow and exponentially produce more baby pumpkins, like some kind of rapidly-dividing festive bacterium. That’s the kind of life you have to live to survive these dark months; stop resisting and just violently embrace fall the way the distant, over-perfumed aunt you only see at cramped Thanksgiving dinners would.
Maximize coziness by wearing a minimum of three knitted articles of clothing at all times, and check if science has advanced enough to let you replace your bodily fluids with pumpkin spice lattes and peppermint hot chocolates. I would recommend lighting a couple of festive Yankee Candles, too, but maybe not if you’re at risk of burning down your dorm.
That's the key to surviving the tail end of 2016, which really hasn't been a stellar year for anyone involved. Focus all the cute, vibrant aspects of fall that you celebrated in elementary school when you drew hand turkeys and cut leaves from jewel-toned construction paper. Find some things you can be thankful for, even if it's just that 2016 is soon over. But I'm sure you can think of something better.
