I Believe in Sunshine

I Believe in Sunshine

By Lauren Lyons

B3

This year I decided that I despise winter.

Throughout the previous years of my life, I never had a problem with winter. As a kid and even as a younger teenager it simply signified hot chocolate, snow, and Christmas. But this year was the year that I felt winter in my soul, and I didn’t like it one bit.

To be honest, I was having a tough year anyways. The easy, sheltered world I knew seemed to be collapsing around me in a matter of seconds, and there was nothing I could do about it. I already felt hopeless and desperate. Then came winter. The biting wind, the despairing gray skies, and the snow that looked beautiful but eventually became little more than an annoyance that concealed all hope of spring; all of it combined together to create an overall bitter, colorless atmosphere that seemed to suck any remaining happiness out of me. Every night I would go to sleep, and every day I would spend the majority of my time looking forward to going back to sleep. I was miserable, and there were many times when I felt like I would never be really happy again.

Then the snow melted, and for the first time in a long time I stepped outside with a smile on my face. The sky was no longer blanketed with dreary gray clouds, but instead it was a pure blue. The world was a palette of colors: pale green and yellow grass, charcoal streets, and a little variety of vibrant flowers. But the best part was, of course, the sunshine. It illuminated everything in its wake and spread its brilliant warmth, melting the shards of ice in me that had made life seem so cold.

Although it snowed again a few times afterward, I was able to persevere because I had hope. Those couple days of sunshine were the only things that kept me sane, and they taught me a crucial lesson. I, along with everyone else on the planet, will inevitably go through times when my world seems wearisome and hopeless. The beauty of those sunny days taught me that I need to endure through the bitter winters of my life in order to experience the fantastic joy of spring, because it’s worth it.

I believe in enduring, and I believe in sunshine.