Fresh snow is the best. Soft smooth layers of it over everything... Streetlights illuminating it while it comes down and accumulates... Soft white blankets laid over trees and yards and railings... The stillness and quiet as you stand in the middle of it... The way dogs run and hop through it when it's too deep for them to walk through... The calming yellow flash coming through the window while the snowplows pile it up along the roads…

Three months ago I was living in Florida and all I wanted to do was move to the North. I was so jealous of every Snapchat story that I saw from all my friends back home in Chicago. While they got to see snow covering trees and fields and houses in such a cozy fashion, I had to wake up to 80 degrees every day, put on shorts, and go face the sunny and warm climate that Florida had to offer. To most people that’s paradise, but it’s just not for me. A lot of people would call me crazy because of that, but I was counting the days until I could come back to the great white North.

It's incredibly peaceful. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of being in the the middle of all the quiet snow. The white landscape in every direction. Sledding through it and hearing only the plastic of the sled speeding along on the hard packed snow. Lying in bed at 8:00 on a weekday when school was canceled and listening to snow plows rumble down the road. It’s hard to find any There’s nothing I've ever experienced cozier than falling asleep under a pile of blankets while the world outside is getting covered in a blanket of snow.

There were some perks of living in Florida, don’t get me wrong. It’s nice when you go outside and the frigid air doesn’t immediately dry your skin and make your face hurt. It’s nice to be able to wear shirts that people see once in a while instead of needing two or three layers to walk to class. There are a few people there who I’m really glad I met, and there are experiences that I’m glad I went through, good or bad. God used every experience to shape me into who I am now and who I'll become later. I definitely grew a lot and I wouldn’t change a thing about it, but my time there was up.

So if I love the snow why did I go to Florida? One of my mentors in high school gave me one piece of advice my senior year, and that was to go out of state if I could, to get out of my bubble. That was something I always wanted to do, and with that piece of advice right in the season when I was picking a school made a difference. Florida was one of the furthest places that I could go and it really helped me to be able to live independently. Now that that’s out of the way though, it’s time to focus on where I want to be. And that’s why I transferred to UW-Whitewater, the weather. Not exclusively the weather, of course. It’s a beautiful campus and there are good programs, but it was mostly for the location.

Honestly, I’m so happy in this environment. At least it’s never humid and it’s always beautiful to me. I’ll take watching snow fall in front of a streetlight over a blue sky any day. Sure it’s a huge change, but I’m adapting the temperature. Of course, there's a lot more to adapt to than the weather, but that’s another story for another day.