Thick Skin

There is something empowering about being born in February,

            in the dead of winter.

There is a strength.

           A different type of skin, a thicker one.

            If you’re from the depths of the North, the higher latitudes of the world, you take on a different attitude.

The girls are grittier, the men braver, even the sports teams seem just a little bit tougher.

There is something about us. Enduring the long winters, the iced over lakes, the Arctic winds. There is something about these conditions that make us fierce. Ready to take on anything, ready to embrace and withstand whatever comes at us. Living in the North just makes us that way.

It could be a sunny 36 degree day, and we still drive with our car windows down. We might even take the tops off our Jeep, get the motorcycles out, run in a t-shirt again. After a stretch of single digit temperatures, anything above 30 degrees feels tropical.

Jackets became unzipped, gloves aren’t always necessary, the cold becomes more like an insulation, an added layer, wrapped around you, keeping you bundled up in a strange way.

The wind blows hard, to the point where it takes your breath away, your voice. A sensation you only know if you have felt it. The wind tunnels of the city are a real and violent thing.

Walking to the theaters, the clubs, between the tall buildings of downtown in subzero wind chills, wearing nylon tights with high heels, short skirts and not nearly warm enough jackets. Your perfume soaking through your scarves, always reminding you of the night before when you pull them around your neck the next morning. There is a fashion, a cold weather look, that fits you just right.

Oddly enough, it was in the middle of winter, in the freezing temperatures, when I loved being in a theater, an arena, a cozy restaurant the most. The body heat of everyone huddled together, warming you up with love and communion, something you didn’t feel in any other season. There is a heat, a light, on those dark winter days, that shines through when you are gathered around the ones you love, listening to the music that revives your soul, eating the food that nourishes you, and watching the games you obsess over.

There is a different sense of community, of gathering in the winter. Where our connection to one another is what we endure on a day-to-day basis. The cold makes us become closer, become one.

There is something empowering about being born in the middle of winter.

Something special.

Something unique and raw. Something bone chilling. The winter weather, and what it does to you, gives you a coat of armor that you wouldn’t have any other way.

With every freezing cold birthday you celebrate, your skin grows thicker with age, your memory on fire for the upcoming summer.

How with every winter that passes, it makes you that much more appreciative of the longer days ahead and the warmth that comes with them.

Of the green pastures, soon to be sprouting up on your horizon.