Snow has always been one of my favorite things about winter, taking second place only to Christmas and Mexican hot chocolate. Though the landscape is a sad color of brown this year, winter goes on—and people keep asking me what I do all day when it’s cold outside. The answer is simple.
I do school. Being a high school sophomore comes with a pretty heavy workload, especially since my family is cutting this semester short to be able to go on vacation in the spring. I’m doubling up on my lessons to get done before we leave in April, so I don’t have as much free time as people think I do.
When I do have spare time, I spend it in a variety of ways. My family and I like to be outside, no matter the temperature! (Although one downside of homeschooling is that we don’t get snow days off.) Besides chores, my siblings and I love to play in the snow, reenact medieval battle scenes in the yard, and take walks. Two years ago, when it was really cold, I made a square igloo out of ice blocks on our property, complete with a hanging door and a working fireplace. My mom called it a research project and counted it towards school even though she hadn’t organized it, because I spent so much time learning about the traditional construction method beforehand. It took me a week to build, but it lasted until the spring thaw!
