Is it selfish to say that you like winter when you have never witnessed a snowstorm or frost? In the same way, is it selfish to say that you like summer when you have never witnessed floods, landslides, everyday wildfires, and so many other things?
I have seen people cling to one side simply because they have never seen the other, or never lived through it. They never consider looking at the other side.
And among those people, I found myself too. I have always loved winter, maybe because I have never experienced a winter blizzard, or maybe because summer has brought me too many sad memories of its own and realizing this made me a little curious. I was choosing my favorites based on my privileges. I was glorifying one season while quietly rejecting the other. And perhaps it is also because I cannot easily ignore the experiences I have lived through during my summers.
I can’t forget how I used to run to my bed and hide under my blankets whenever it rained too hard . And it’s funny how, the girl who never wanted time to pass suddenly imagined herself in the future, happy, and calm, whenever sky suddenly grew brighter with lightning.
I can’t forget how my mom used to run barefoot into the fields with a basket in her hand to cover the growing sprouts when a hailstorm hit. Funny how she never thought of covering herself first.
I can’t forget how my sister and I ran home from the river with heaps of wet clothes on our backs, crying and wishing for the rain to stop.
I can’t forget how hard it was to go to my neighbor’s house to tell them about my grandfather’s critical situation, when it rained so heavily.
I can’t forget how I used to crawl into a corner and cover my ears with my hands, pretending it wasn’t raining.
I can’t forget how I used to cover the windows with multiple clothes, just to avoid facing that reality.
And I can’t forget my villagers running to their fields the morning after a heavy rain.
Despite all this, I still find it selfish to choose one season over another—to wait for one while resenting the other. Maybe the point was never to choose or glorify one. Maybe the point was simply to live through them. One season might bring challenges, but another gives us the time to heal from them. And perhaps that is the beauty of nature, of life, and of this vast universe we are living in.
