The Ice Outside Your Door

This snowstorm is one of the biggest topics of conversation in public right now. The extreme amounts of snow building up, the danger of driving on the slick roads, even the risk of trees exploding from the extreme cold are all things bouncing around everyone's heads right now. Personally, my house is struggling to stay warm, and the entranceway is struggling to stay dry with everyone tracking snow in. 

But, with every instance where comfort is removed from the equation, some people’s habits and values fall through for the priority of convenience. For those who chose the classic new year’s resolution to "go to the gym" and are starting to deal with the clashing of comfort and goal reaching, this snow is enough to make them stay home and lose their habit as a whole. This is impactful to me as well, since my goal is to run more, and I want to run outside, but the snow is over a foot deep. Another standard for myself is that if I am able to walk somewhere, I will do it. I will never drive anywhere that I can easily walk to. This value is being challenged because every breath I take outside makes my facial hair freeze into little wind chimes of sweat and breath.

However, even through this pain, I will walk from my house off campus, to Freed (despite the freezing cold) and take the class that has me making these blogs in the first place. That is my standard, and while yes, I have driven to get groceries when technically I could've walked, that's beyond the point, and I've held true to my standards.

I'm noticing some people around me fall through quite easily on these values. The value of following logic goes out the window when they say, "so much for global warming." Or the value of not online shopping disappears when it becomes a 45-minute drive to go shopping, or they didn't properly prepare for the storm. Maybe, life would get so hard for some people that they resort to stepping on the people around them for their benefit, abandoning their values, morals, and ethical code so that they can scratch their own itch. I struggle to have respect for those that lose humanity when times get hard. 

But this isn't about the snowstorm. This is about doing what's right, not because it's easy, but because it's right. Shovel your driveway and get your neighbor's if you have time. Educate the people around you on how to prepare for hard times. Above all, make sure that ice is not outside your door.