Forecast

It is strange to wait for a storm. I check the radar for my area, the weather reports, the school closings. I go outside and sniff the air, look at the sky, put my hand out to feel the beginnings of this massive snowstorm that is supposed to come tonight. I used to grumble at snow, especially if I had to drive in it, but lately I've been careful to not complain. In the snow's absence this winter, I've realized how much I cherish it. The jumping into drifts, the plodding along a packed trail to haul in wood that will warm the house, the way a heavy snowfall will weigh on tree branches and make for a breathtaking drive to wherever it is you are going.....For me, these are some of my best memories of being young, of living in Northern Minnesota. I hope for snow tonight, because I want to put on my snowpants and play in it.

*I wrote about how I played in the snow last weekend, and I shared this yesterday with my students to spur them on in their own freewrite. Some of them wouldn't admit to playing in the snow. Some of them made fun of me. One of them asked me, "Aren't you, like, forty?" I love this. There's nothing like teaching seventh graders to help one develop a skin of the thickest, scaliest kind. --- I hope my students remember me when they are older, when they start to feel like they should be "grown up" but then shudder at that thought, at the possibility that then they might never do something like run through an open field of untouched snow and plop, roll around and sit there, butt freezing and a dog climbing all over, wanting to run around some more.