My First Snowy Experience

Hello Hi! Thank you again for visiting and reading. I do not know how many of you have seen that youtube clip - what are you doing running in the snow? Well, I thought I'd share a personal story with you all and I hope you enjoy it:-

It was late October; the weather forecast had predicted a heavy snowfall the next day. I was relatively new to the country of the famous Queen and just like similar students; I was excited to see the snow for the first time in my life. I felt thoroughly prepared for the weather, having gone shopping with my aunt for winter clothing soon after I had arrived. Of all my newly acquired purchase, I was most impressed with my new ‘grippy’ boots, as I loved to call them. They were black and not particularly attractive, but they were warm inside, had grids underneath and were comfortable. I had also got them at a good price during the shop’s sale. I remember showing them to one of my new friends, Miss A, whom with a disinterested look, said that she had never seen an uglier pair of boots in her life. I was not bothered about what she or anyone else would think about my boots when I wore them; I just looked forward to experiencing the snow wholeheartedly. So after I heard about the weather forecast, I went to bed feeling elated that night and hoping that morning would come just as white and beautiful as I had always dreamed it would be.

“Stop drumming please!” I said exasperatedly, “you’re giving me a headache, stop it!” but he continued drumming loudly and singing my name along with it. I was just about to snatch the instrument away before I woke up. It was a dream but there was actually somebody knocking on my door; it was Ivy, my new flatmate and course mate. I looked at my watch, it was 2am and Ivy was still knocking rampantly whilst calling my name “Vi, wake up!” I ran to the door, hoping there was no serious problem. My first thought was that I may have left something cooking on the electric stove, which had caused a fire. I hastily opened my door, “Is everything alright, Ivy?” I asked, panting. “It’s snowing!” she replied excitedly. “What?” I asked in shock, and she repeated even more excitedly “I said it’s snowing!” “Is that why you woke me up by 2am?” I asked angrily; she looked confused but before she could reply I had banged the door. How could she have woken me at such an hour just because of the snow? I knew I really wanted to see the snow but I loved my sleep-time and did not like to be disturbed unnecessarily.  Looking out through my window, it was snowing indeed and people were already outside making snowmen. It was such a beautiful sight that it made me smile and as I crawled back into my bed to continue my beloved sleep, I knew I would apologise to Ivy when the day was bright.

The next morning, I got ready for school putting on my ‘grippy’ boots delightedly. I had only one lecture today – English Writing, which was optional but I was happy to attend because I thought it was cool to have an English Language class, taught by an English tutor, in England. I knocked politely on Ivy’s door and waited. On previous occasions, I would have gone into her room immediately after the first knock, whether or not she responded. This time however, I waited patiently until she asked me to come in; not only because I knew I had been rude to her earlier that morning but also because I indirectly wanted to indicate to her how to knock properly on a door. I apologised to her immediately, blaming my action on a sleeping medication (that I never took) and she seemed to willingly accept my apology. I asked if she was attending the English class but she said no, stating that her command of English was very good, thus she did not need to. I headed for the lecture thinking to myself, that I also had a good command of English (although some of you might disagree), even better than hers.

I sat at the first row as I usually did in most of my classes, not because I was a smart kid as was the norm, but because I had a ‘less-than-average’ eyesight. The instructor was a tall, slim woman with short hair. She introduced herself to the class and was just about to say something else before a voice interrupted “Excuse Ma?” I did not need to look at the person for me to realise that he was Nigerian but I turned around anyway to satisfy my curiosity. He was a dark-skinned, middle-aged looking man who wore a thick pair of glasses and even though, he was sitting, I could instantly tell that he was short. ‘Yes?’ she answered smiling; “I just wanted to ask whether we should put our phones on silent or keep it on melody” I snorted with laughter because I had never heard that phrase before – ‘keeping phone on melody’ and I thought it was hilarious even though I knew what he meant. “I’d rather you kept it on silent mode please, so that we don’t get distracted with melody” she replied cheekily. Some of my classmates giggled.

The rest of the class went on uneventfully as she talked about the importance of paragraphing and word organisation, for assignments purposes. She also talked about plagiarism and how she had once read a paper where a student had paraphrased ‘chocolate ice cream’ as ‘dark-brown-frozen-sweetness for desert’, just to avoid the penalty of plagiarism. Everyone laughed and finally the lecture came to an end. Just before leaving the class, the instructor added “Oh, I forgot! Be careful when walking in the snow because I fell on my way here. That is what I wanted to tell you earlier.” I chuckled and this time, she turned to me saying “I noticed you’ve been laughing a lot. I hope you don’t fall” to which I replied smugly “It’s not my portion” before I proceeded happily to show off my boots and the grids underneath them, to a few of my course mates that cared to look or listen.

I went to the library afterwards to borrow some books for reading, since I had no other lecture for the day. On my way back home from the library, on one of the steepy slopes of Sheffield, lo and behold I slipped and fell! Within the few seconds as I got lifted in the air during the slip, I had quick flashbacks; of when I had proudly shown off my boots severally, about how I had laughed at my teacher and of how rudely I had responded to her. Thus, it was a painful fall with so many people around me watching, not only because my butt hit hard on the cold frozen snow but also because of the deep shame I felt within. Someone helped me to get up and I walked back slowly to my room, supporting myself along the way by grabbing rails and walls, no longer deluded by my trust in my boots. Later on, I shamefully told Miss A about my fall and after laughing hard, she said “Better throw those things away”, referring to my boots as ‘things’. I did not get rid of the boots as advised until they gave up the ghost last year but I never bragged to anyone about them again. One thing was for sure though, I never laughed at anyone’s fall again.

So my dear friends, this was how my first experience in the snow went and this is the reason why I became afraid of the snow (well until I had a different experience which I will tell you about next week). Until then, thank you for reading, please share with friends and leave your comments behind, and no matter what you do this week, make sure you leave your hearts ‘on melody’! xx

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