Before I moved to Maryland I lived in Florida, an area where it’s always warm. I would read books and watch movies where kids would wake up one morning and find snow covering their yards. They were excited to build snowmen and have snow fights with their neighbor while beautiful snowflakes would fall from the sky, each with unique patterns. After I moved, I looked forward to seeing my first snow. When I bothered my mother, she would repeatedly tell me to wait for the winter.

One morning, I woke up at seven o’clock to prepare for school. I brushed my teeth, took a shower, woke my sister up, and wore the clothes I prepared the night before. I threw my backpack over my shoulder when my mother stopped me.

“There’s no school today.”

I squinted my eyes and scrunched my lips. Did I forget a holiday?

“Look outside” She read my face.

I flew to the window and dropped my jaw to the floor. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“Snow!” I squealed,  the word escaped my mouth.

“Lhenny it’s snowing,” I yelled, running to my sister.  

She dropped her bag on the bed and lifted the blinds. I shook my brother awake and all three of us placed our noses on the cold window. I felt my face go numb. I couldn’t believe we didn’t have school just because it was snowing. Snow might be the best thing ever.

My mom came aside us, looking out the window also. We all never seen snow before. It amazed us all.

“Can we go play outside?” My sister asked. I snapped my neck to the side, prepared to hear my mother’s answer.

“I don’t know”

“Please” I begged.

“Okay,” she sighed. “You better wear multiple jackets”

I added more clothes, just to make my mom happy and waited by the door. I felt weightless. I felt like I was hugged by the world.

First step outside, the cold hit us like a rock. I shivered under the layers of clothes. Ice covered the first steps out the door but, I ignored it. I placed one foot forward and I fell, hard.

I winced in pain and lifted myself up and huffed my way around the ice. The leaves in the bushes poked out which created little holes. I couldn’t breathe. It felt like someone was choking me. I wanted to go back inside. When the bushes weren’t around me anymore, I turned to find my mother and sister one thousand miles away. I didn’t notice I was running.

I looked at the sky and my face fell. Where are the snowflakes? I watched a little white ball fall. It kissed the ground goodbye, as I watched it disappeared in front of my eyes.

These weren’t snowflakes, at least not the ones I expected. When we walked to the playground and I saw a snowman staring me. The snowman was really hideous. In the books and movies, three large snowballs would stack up against each other, but this snowman was one large round triangle. The eyes were two rocks. One rock was small and silver with patches of different colors. And the other rock was larger and darker.

When we arrived at the park, my sister grabbed some snow and formed it into a ball and threw it at my face. I stood still in shock for two seconds before making my own snowball. I swung it like a baseball aiming at her face. It hit my mother’s leg instead. She gave me her award-winning stink face.

While we worked on a snowman, my hands wanted to run back home. My gloves didn’t do a good job keeping them warm. I yanked them off and observed them like a science experiment. They began to itch and bother me. I wanted to cry.

“Mom,” I cried out.

I ran towards my mom but tripped over a branch. The snow touched my ankles and stole all of the heat from my knees. I lifted myself up and rubbed my ankles, growling.  They itched and began to bother me.

“I want to go home,” I told my mother in a serious tone.

My teeth quivered the whole way home. I rushed inside and cuddled up on my bed. One of my hands was itching my ankle while the other was desperately trying to keep my ears toasty.  How is my sister not dying too?

My mom brought me and Lhenny some hot tea, I gulped it down, ignoring the new burn on my tongue. I stayed in bed for the rest of the day, shivering.

That day, I realized I missed Florida. A place that never got cold. A place my hands would never get numb and my ankles would never itch. A place it would never snow.