Vermont
Vermont
By Joshua Martin
Edmunds Middle School, Grade 7
Numb fingers, red cheeks, stiff toes, waving branches… If there was one thing I would change about Vermont, it’s winter.
Every winter morning you take the car in Vermont, you have to wake up early to scrape the ice off your windshield. Then you have to shovel your walkway. And sometimes, when it’s really snowy, you have to dig out your car or pray for the snowplow to come by your street. Finally, when you climb into your car, the air is freezing, the windows are frosty, and the seats are cold.
And that is just the beginning. Once you arrive at school you have to strip off all your snow stuff. This includes: snow pants, hat, gloves, coat, boots and scarf. This all has to fit in a minuscule locker, so you jam and pack and push until you can finally shut the door. Then when school's over, you have to trudge home in a couple feet of snow which doubles the amount of time it takes to get home. Probably the worst thing about Vermont winters is that they delay everything. You have to be very patient if you wish to become a true Vermonter.
And sometimes, even if you try to escape, Vermont’s weather won’t permit it. For example, one time my family was going to go to Puerto Rico for the February vacation. We were going to fly out of Burlington, and be on the beach hours later. But an oversized storm hit New England and all flights were canceled. Quickly, my parents tried to find a way to still get to Puerto Rico, but the closest flight was in Boston at 6:00 am the next morning, and there were not any rental cars either. We were trapped!
We were running out of options. Our family had to give up on vacation or find a solution. Since we are stubborn Vermonters, we decided to find a cab at midnight which would drive us all the way to Boston. This is only a four hour drive from Burlington, but I will remember that long taxi ride for the rest of my life.
The taxi driver told us that he had not had slept in 2 days. This frightened us quite a bit. To keep himself from falling asleep, the driver had to blast the radio and roll his window all the way down. He seemed so tired we were worried he’d fall asleep driving. He even asked my dad to take the wheel for a while on the trip down! In the end, our persistence won over the elements.
Maybe winter gives all Vermonters a little extra determination. When the winter is so long and cruel that it seems like it will never end, you need pure willpower and strength of mind. The many hardships of winter here build character and make Vermonters the way they are.
But if there was one thing I could change about Vermont, it would be to make winters just a little shorter…