Lucas B., Centerville High School
The Snowman
Life is hard. I believe that every parent, teacher, and mentor that has ever existed has said this at least once. More importantly, however, is what we choose to do in those hard moments. In any troublesome situation, a person will always have a choice. A choice to stay positive in that negative moment, or let the natural man ruin an opportunity to grow.
One such choice occurred to me and my family in the cold winter of 2019. It had snowed almost every day for weeks, with temperatures dropping into the negatives every night. The sun had been hiding for days, and a biting wind ran through the houses of our small suburban neighborhood. We had lost electricity hours before, due to a strong blizzard, sending the house into a bitter cold. Even with a fire popping and sparking joyfully in our manual fireplace, and the many layers me and each of my seven siblings wore, our teeth still chattered, our hands rubbing swiftly together trying to find some warmth.
There was little noise in the house, and little light besides the fire and our flashlights. We were all crouched around the fireplace, books in our hands, trying hard to forget the ever-present cold. Bored, I glanced out the window. There, out in the snowy ground, was a snowman. It had a scarf wrapped around it, a carrot nose, small mittens covering its stick hands, and two large pebbles crafting its sparkling eyes. A completely normal snowman. What I hadn’t noticed before, however, was the large, wide smile it showed on its face, demonstrating the total carelessness and joy that I wished to have had at that moment. It didn’t seem to care about the heavy snowfall around it, nor the freezing temperatures it was in. It just kept smiling its joyous smile, a light in the cold, dark yard. The snowman symbolized something I had not thought of. Its happiness in such a dark and hopeless situation reminded me of how I needed to be in hard moments.
Seeing the snowman didn’t change the weather, but it did change me. I looked away from the snowman, stood up, and walked to our family piano. I was done wallowing in misery in that bitter cold. I started playing. Tentatively at first, like a man walking again for the first time, I began a Sonata. Soon, It swelled with emotion, happy at some moments, sad at others. Boldly, then timidly. The music brought life back to the house, and for the first time in days, I began to feel truly happy again.
A snowman stands in cold, dark places. It stands in the bitter wind, the freezing cold, the heavy hail, and the harsh blizzards. A snowman withstands much more dangerous situations than we do, yet a snowman will never frown. A snowman will never complain. It will stand and smile and live. Just like a snowman, I too shall stand.
