secret to winter in minnesota
Today I woke up and hopped on social media to find the entire United States of America was below zero, this hasn’t happened since the 70s. Buffalo, New York got 70+ inches (that is not a typo). I grew up in the mid west so cold and snow are not unfamiliar to me. I can remember waiting out at the bus stop with temperatures of -40 degrees (F). This is insanely cold, all the liquid in your face freezes and whatever face you were making is the face you will be dawning for a some time.
As a child you get to go outside, make snow people, build snow forts, ski/snowboard, ice skating, pond hockey and (one of my favorites) snowball fights! Winter in Minnesota (as a kid) is awesome.
Then you grow up and you are required to do things you don’t like, and to get to these things you don’t really enjoy doing you must dig your car out of feet and feet of snow. Or your car might be gone because you forgot that there was a snow emergency and you got towed. Next is warming that bad boy up. Some are lucky to own remote starters in their car, others are not. As a 31yo (at the time I write this) have never owned a remote starter! I have however ALWAYS wanted one. Next is driving this huge hunk of metal to the location you need to, as fast as the roads will allow you but without hitting, getting hit or getting stuck and having to dig your way out.
To say the least I get why most people think winter sucks. I don’t think winters are bad, yes there are times I complain about it but everything really changed for me about four years ago when I started snowboarding. I started looking at my life and all the thing I always wanted to do but hadn’t yet and started doing them. I went out with a few friends, borrowed some gear (boots and board) and tried it. I hated it. I was so cold and my body hurt so much. I kept asking why would anyone in the world do this for fun. One detail you must know is that I didn’t own snow pants, good gloves, or a warm jacket. This was the main problem, aside from not knowing what the heck I was doing. My friends decided to make a commit to two more days and so I said “Fuck it, lets do this!” The next day I went out and bought snowboarding snow pants a hat and gloves. Holy cow what a world of difference this makes. You don’t even notice its cold out. Two more days of straight snowboarding and whiskey (for the pain) and I was getting it and not falling as often.
The following winter I took a trip to Colorado to snowboard mountains because I’m a pro after one season in Minnesota! It was amazing, extremely fun and so beautiful. Then it dawned on me that it felt like when I was a kid and I would get excited to go out and play in the snow. This is the secret to winter!