A Snowless Holiday Season

By: Katie Hagerty

Everyone loves the holiday season. It only comes around once a year, but what is the holiday season without snow? This is the longest time we haven't had snow. I don't feel like the holidays are coming without the white fluff on the ground. It just puts the holiday spirit in the air. That's at least how I feel about it.

I personally celebrate Christmas. I don't know which of the holidays you celebrate, but all I know is I like snow on the ground for Christmas. I love the cold weather, and the way the snow sparkles and falls. After I get my presents there is nothing better than looking out at the white snow that is on my lawn. Without the snow where is the fun? I feel no need to stay under a blanket with a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows. So, where is the Christmas snow? What ever happened to snow on Christmas? Or Kwanzaa? Perhaps Hanukkah snow? I'm not saying it won't happen, I am just saying where in the world is the snow? It shouldn't be in Australia because it's summer there. So where is the snow? Where is our predication of frosty flakes?

The latest snowfall ever recorded is December Third 1889. We beat it this year. Over 100 years this record was held and we beat it in my lifetime. I think this is astonishing, but now that we broke it can we please have snow fall? We have beaten the record world, I want snow! I get that some people don't like the cold, and the snow, but where is the precipitation? I don't think that there is any Holiday Cheer. Without snow, I don't truly feel Winter is here!

Temperatures drop in Winter, and Winter is special. It ends our year, and starts it. The one thing about Winter is that there is always snow. The Winter Solstice (the darkest day of the year) hasn't quite happened yet, but there is usually snow. We had plenty of snow last year in November of 2014. Snow was around for a very long time. Last year during a track meet in the spring it had hail, and snow. It was freezing, but now that it is Winter the snow isn't showing. It is part of global warming whether you believe in it or not. With the globe warming the snow would be disappearing. Very unfortunate for you snow lovers, like me. No snow on Christmas, or your birthday (if you have a winter birthday) or any kind of celebration in winter!

Well, you might be happy that you don't have to shovel your driveways, and sidewalks. Maybe your neighbor’s driveway. However, without snow, there is basically no winter fun! What about building snowmen? Making snow angels? You might be thinking you are to old for that, but let’s be honest, you have done this things in one point in your life. Now, if you still do these things, have fun! I love building snowmen, and sledding. Along with snowboarding. I have only ever really snowboarder once, but I was good. If you are in ski and snowboard club, you wouldn’t be able to go on the slopes without snow. All that winter fun you had other kids would never get to experience!

So maybe snow isn’t such a bad thing right? Shoveling your driveway, and your neighbor’s as well is not such a bad thing. Sure it is cold out there, and maybe your arms hurt too, but isn’t worthwhile? Don't be a pessimist! Do not be negative forwards snow! Think of all the snow days! We had many in a row last year. Without that little white fluff no snow days at all. You would get an extra for the homework you forgot to do. Face it, everyone forgets their homework once! Without a snow day you would get in trouble for that too! Plus, it is fun staying home with your family? Also, who doesn’t love an unexpected day off? It is like an unexpected weekend! Unless it snows pretty bad, and you already pretty much know you aren't going to school tomorrow, but why not an extra day off? It's free, no charge, except the snow!

I love snow, and Winter and I hope you do too. Maybe you have changed your mind about snow, and the cold. Perhaps you are just detestation towards Winter! Enjoy the wintry weather! Buffalo is known for its Arctic snow. It is like we are the mini Arctic here in winter! So, let’s get some Holiday Cheer, and some snow down here in the mini Artic! Make it snow!

Learning to Fall

Teacher Viewpoint by Mrs. Shepherd

In our family, we have a phrase we try to live by: “Falling is learning.” It started when my daughter, Ona, was learning how to rollerblade. If she hadn’t been willing to fall, then she wouldn’t have learned how to skate. In our family, we believe that failure can trigger the best kinds of success in our lives.

During the past two winters, I’ve been re-learning to snowboard. As an older, less in-shape version of myself, it’s a bit harder than when I was in my early twenties. And as I watch my daughter glide down the hill or scream with delight when the lift nears the summit, I can see that it’s much much easier as a four-year old. Why? Because she’s fearless. And I am afraid to fail. She’s not worried about how she looks or about getting hurt. Me? I’m terrified.

Actually, I’m really good at staying up on my board, at not falling. How? One strategy I use is picking the easiest trails, with only the best conditions. Another? I stick to what I’m good at: I tend to favor my heel turns. In fact, there have been times that I’ve managed to go down the entire hill on my heels. Sometimes I’m too afraid that if I swing around to my toes, I will faceplant into the mountainside. So I avoid it. Though it puts lots of extra pressure on my calves, at least I rarely fall. So, if I don’t fall much, then what’s the problem? Well, I have to ask myself, am I really snowboarding?

It’s only in the moments when I let myself go and feel the freedom of zipping along the snow, high in the mountains, catching grooves, and whirling and swirling, that I feel like I’m actually snowboarding. But the easiest trails—the ones I tend to pick—are too flat to really get in a groove like that. Yet I’m afraid that if I take a trickier trail, one that will challenge me, that I’ll fall on my backside in a comical (and painful) heap.

So, what do I do? Stick to the easy slopes or challenge myself to learn from my mistakes? I choose the challenge. This winter is the season when I plan to go for the tough trails. I plan to fall. And fall a lot. But it’s what I do with those falls that will help me learn to be a better boarder: when I get up with a renewed sense of determination; when I watch riders who are better than me, analyze what they are doing, and then give it a go. When I believe that, to learn, I must fail.

I realized this lesson years ago in my eleventh grade English class. On the very first day of class my teacher assigned an essay that was due the following afternoon. No problem. I loved to write (I’m sure some of my peers were like Are you kidding me?). I sat confidently typing away on my home computer, excited to share my infinitely amazing writing. Three days later, when I got my paper back with a giant, red “C” at the top, I couldn’t believe it. Maybe he hadn’t read it. At least not very closely. No - there were red marks all over the pages. Maybe he was in a bad mood? It was as if he wanted to see my paper bleed red. He’d scribbled questions sideways in the margins: couldn’t he see my brilliance? I grew a great big lump of worry in my throat. I wanted to be on the Honor Roll, yet how could that happen if I was getting C’s in one of my favorite subjects? I wondered if I should switch to an easier English course.

This winter, when I hit the slopes, I hope to do some faceplants. Because learning means failing, or—in my case—falling.

THERE'S STILL MORE PANTHER PRESS TO READ!