A letter to December

Dear December,

Where are you? Today is the 28^th, I have hardly seen or felt your presence all month, and I only have three more days with you. You’re acting a lot like March really, except for those few sprinkles of snow, if you could call them that. A snow-less Christmas has come and gone and the sun is shining again, melting whatever dusting had rested on the ground. Nonetheless you are closing out an interesting year full of adventures, smiles, tears, and memories. Looking back at last December, I wondered where I would be in a year. I would have never guessed here. I can’t say everything has been flowers and sunshine, but it’s been during the storms that I have grown the most. I would not have asked for some of the experiences I received, but would not trade them for anything for they have made me who I am today. It’s hard to see this at times, but having a few days to relax and reflect has helped. From these reflections, hopefully, I will learn from my mistakes and continue to treasure what God has blessed me with. Who knows? Maybe the start of 2012 will encourage me to leave my apathetic ways and help readjust my focus. And so I thank you December for comforting me with your warmer-than-usual weather, reindeer, abundance of homemade cookies, and talk of a new year.

Sincerely,

Hannah      

Knock Your Mismatched Socks Off

“Hey, guess what?” my friend asked one day.

“What?” I replied

“I have a purple sock on and a pink sock on!”

I looked at her as she smiled and simply shook my head…

One of my biggest pet-peeves is unmatched socks. I only wear socks that match and will NOT mix-match them. I have frequently pointed out to my roommate that her socks do not match. An example of this mismatching is a pink and black zebra stripped sock paired with a green and blue polka dot sock. Her response to my outbursts was that she bought a pack of 10 socks that purposefully did not match and she that was going to wear them proudly no matter how many times I complained about it. I eventually gave up and tried not think of how much they didn’t match.

But one morning after my ranting, she challenged me to wear unmatched socks. I reluctantly agreed but told her that she would have to listen to me complain about it all day. My unmatched socks consisted of a purple sock with a green frog on it paired with a white and pink stripped sock. When I first put them on, I did not know how I was going to make it through the day. It was wrong. They did not match. At all. Nothing about them matched. Did I mention that I was wearing socks that didn’t match? Obviously I wanted to make them match. But I couldn’t; I told my roommate I would wear them until 10 o’clock that night. I could do this…maybe.

I put my tennis shoes on which helped, but I could still feel their unmatching-ness nagging at me in the back of my mind. Surprisingly I made it through the day with minimal complaining. This amazed me because I thought having unmatched socks would be a big issue for me. But honestly after my first class I forgot about them and was only reminded when I occasionally glanced at my feet. Out of sight out of mind perhaps?

The saying goes don’t knock something until you’ve tried it. Well I tried it. I made it to 10 o’clock that night and I proved to myself that I was not confined by disdain for mismatched socks. I “faced my fear” if you will, and conquered it. Even though I continue to match my socks, at least I tried something new and out of the ordinary. And surprisingly, I lived to tell about it.  

Do you wear mismatched socks? Why or why not? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!   

Picture obtained from mitaliblog.com