Snowed In

Today as I was daydreaming in psych class, a pastime of mine, a wave of memories came flooding to me. It was so bizarre, the professor is going on and on about graphs, girl across from me have a severe case of blank face, the guy from Ohio is lightly tapping my chair with his foot, and the only thing I can think is "wow he kind of looks like a younger Marlon Brando". No lie.

Halfway through class, my professor brings up things that could have a negative influence on doing experiments. One of them are environmental factors, such as time of day, if their is construction going on, and as an exaggeration he said "even if there was some blizzard or something".

Who knows why this word triggered such a response in my mind, but all of a sudden I remembered that 10 years ago I was happy, precocious ten year old. My brother and I contribute 1996 as one of the best years of our lives.

Our summers were spent going to cookouts, Joe the ice-cream man, and fourth of July at White Plains High school.

During the fall, I got my first violin. School was the best. I meet my three best friends, and future crush of all time(also the first and last time I got detention).

In the spring, my brother and joined a club after school devoted to cooking. My mom and James took us(me and my brother and his two kids who were basically like our siblings) to parks, were we played baseball and Frisbee and had picnics with along the Hudson.

It was amazing. Ten years ago I was the happiest I could have ever been. But the fondest memories are from the winter. And him mentioning blizzards brought back my first encountered with the Blizzard of 96'.

Something about being a kid allows you to look in the face of potentially dangerous situations as an adventurous mission. I remember the day as if it were yesterday. If anyone has gone to school in the northeast you know that contrary to popular belief school does not always get cancelled if it snows.

I was in the fourth grade, and we were listening to the radio to see how bad the storm would be. As a precaution to..I don't know hysteria, our school decided to put all the kids in the auditorium. The funniest hour EVER. One by one we got dismissed. The kids whose rides were waiting outside got to leave as first. They were usually dismissed before they packed the rest of us (busriders/walkers) in the auditorium. One by one the bus kids left and if you(the walkers) were lucky enough you could sneak out with them and be on your way.

If you were lucky you had to wait until the walkers were dismissed, who were usually dismissed last assuming they didn't have far to walk. I lived 5 blocks from my school which was far but not so far that they would send a bus to Beacon Hall apartments(home to some famous movie stars from the 20's). As soon as I got outside I wanted to turn around and go back inside.

It was freezing cold, the wind was smacking my face(which hurt the most) and the gloves were not keeping my small hands warm. I was a small kid, who was as skinny as a pole. I felt as if it any moment I would blow away, and I had barely stepped from the school grounds.

I don't even know how I made it as far as I did. Me and snow have a history. My mom loves to tell the story of how I almost died when I was young due to scarlet Fever. I was a blue as the ocean, she says, and she had no idea what to do. Scarlet Fever is not a pleasant illness for a baby. So she took me outside, it was snowing real bad, sat down with me cradled in her arms, and rocked meuntil my fever went down. Which it did.

So walking home that sky, teeth chattering, shoes soaked, hands freezing, all I could think was "round two: Beckett vs. Snow". The halfway mark to our apartment was a hardware store(I thought). I knew that as soon as I got there, I would walk three more blocks through the nice neighborhood, to get to Beacon Hall. But I began getting overwhelmed by the storm. You think something as beautiful as snow would not be so crushing on the body. But along with the wind, the already 2ft on the ground, and my now soaked clothes it was becoming harder and harder to walk. So I decided to stop just to catch my breath, just to get more momentum to walk. Luckily I stopped right in front of the store, which I assumed was just an store that was closing. It never looked open. We passed it so many times and never saw anyone go in it.

But just as I was about to begin walking again the door open and a dark haired man with glasses called me in. Even though you learn the "don't talk to strangers" deal. In the face of frozen fingers that precaution flies out the window and instead you think...Heat. He owned the store for a couple of years, it wasn't really a hardware store, it was a cabinet. His specialty. I took of my wet jacket and gloves, following him around the store, becoming amazed with cabinets. He showed me the phone where I called my mom and told her where I was and that I would be home as soon as the snow let up.

He made cocoa for the both of us, and I sat around the cabinet store for at least an hour talking with the cabinet man. It is one of te fondest memories I have of that year. I headed home saying goodbye as soon as the snow let up. I don't think I ever went inside the place again, but made sure to at least wave when I went to and from school.

I don't know why that memory popped in my head today. I don't know why any of it came rushing back. Realizing that it has 10 years since...I don't know. Since I wondered who I would be I was 20. Where I thought I would be. Let downs, highlights, and such...Was kind of surreal, in an okay kind of way. I guess the feeling comes from realizing that you've changed so much but also not at all. That 10 years ago I was living my highest highs, and 10 years later I am slowly trying to recover from my lowest lows. I feel like today it all came full circle.

Like, just like that day snowed in with the man and his cabinets, sipping on cocoa and waiting for my hands to warm up where all symbolic to where I am now. I feel like in a lot of ways I am still snowed in, waiting for the storm to let up so I can head home. I can only express it as being content with how far I've come. Refreshing.

This week has been very tiring. A test, a quiz, a lab and then more summer school planning dilemma for summer session 2. I've been dragging around, having problems sleeping and have experienced another idiot pulling the fire alarm at 1am. Needless to say I am ready to go home,eat something other than frozen food, and sleep in a bed bigger than a twin size.

I'm really looking forward to the school year starting. I have decided to attend a meeting for the student run magazine. It's more creative than writing for the newspaper and it may be just the outlet I am looking for to meet friends and write. I also hope to start working at a job that doesn't require me to ask if they want fries and a soda with that.