Snow is underrated and you should touch it.

it's cool, just do it.

The internet influences the offline, the offline impacts the internet.

At YBNBO, Sundays for journaling.

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I first saw snow in Salt Lake City, two years, three months ago, the week I turned 30. As dull as that city is, snow has a way of wrapping places in an added layer of muteness, so imagine how much more bland and lifeless a place is if you don’t know a thing about it other than “Mormons” and “Real Housewives,” especially if you also don’t know a thing about “Mormons” and “Real Housewives.” That soft, quiet feeling is familiar to locals and those who have family members who know how to ski. Not me. 

I still have friends who’ve never seen it and telling them what it’s like is as impossible as translating the feeling of snow into film.

I’m 33. I moved from Florida to Pennsylvania one year and eight months ago. Before that, I’ve lived in Florida all of my life. I’ve survived slept through two handfuls of hurricanes, driven through as many storms as I’ve waited in theme park queues in my lifetime––a lot. I had no idea this entire time I was a winter baby. But rain is not snow and many times than not snow is unusually pleasant and something I still love seeing.

On my 31st birthday, I told my Lyft driver (who was dropping me off to see The Batman, alone, at 12:30pm) I hadn’t seen snow before and that this week was my first time.

“You’ve never seen snow before?”

“That’s right. Never. I’m from Florida.”

He didn’t believe me. I saw in the rear view that he squinted his eyes, shook his head.

“How is that possible? I mean, I’m from Bangladesh. That doesn’t mean I haven’t seen a beach.”

I didn’t understand what he was trying to say. I tried thinking as fast as I could to understand what he was saying.

“I just haven’t seen snow before... I mean, people don’t plan vacations around natural weather events. No one goes to Florida because they know a storm is coming. I just haven’t been to a place where it snowed.”

“I don’t believe it. You’re how old? Your 20s?”

“I turn 30 today.”

“And you’ve never seen snow until this week? I mean, like, bro, it just doesn’t make sense, I don’t, like, I don’t understand how you could go so long without having seen it, I don’t think where you’re from matters, the whole world is out there, and, like…”

I remember leaving the car ride distraught over my alleged lying and the fact that he didn’t wish me a happy birthday and trying everything in my power to not leave an elaborate review explaining that my driver had made me feel like a liar for saying I haven’t seen snow before while explaining that he was still worth 5-stars. To this day, the only sub-5-star reeview I’ve ever given was to a man in State College who complained that drunk college kids shouldn’t be walking out in the streets because they’ll die and likely deserve it. I wrote “This guy is fucking crazy” for his review and Lyft asked if I needed to call the cops.

(During The Batman, a movie that was just fine, I noticed Batman ate a bowl of berries, and Catwoman drank a glass of milk, and I laughed out loud in the theater (alone) and thought way too much about it. Was that intentional? Did they really think about this?

Did you also know that some movie theaters have heated seats?)

That entire birthday week, I didn’t really touch the snow on the ground because it felt weird not to have a reason other than that I hadn’t before. You can’t lob snowballs at strangers.

It snowed this month in my part of PA and it’s caused me to do demonic things like stop by Sheetz to order a hot coffee and a grilled cheese. I also threw a snowball for the first time in my life. And I’m 32.