Some background: Last year my roommates and I agreed to go sugar free, but we definitely did. Mostly we said no to junk food, treats, and sugary drinks. Honestly, cutting back on sugar felt really good. Most of the time.
Other times I really wanted a mug of hot chocolate because it was the dead of winter and hot chocolate is my coping mechanism. But I felt like I couldn’t.
Second important piece of background info: Us girls in Apartment 22 have a neighbor (we'll call him Pocket). He shows up at our apartment maybe once a month without warning and asks to play a board game or jump in rain puddles or do some other spontaneous thing with us. We have a love/hate relationship with Pocket.
Third and final thing: Schoolwork is important, kids. I should know, it's what I do 99% of my waking life. Oh, the joy of being a full-time college student. But, sometimes, taking a break and building a snowman is more important.
Got all that? Good. Now let’s jump into one of the weirdest nights of my life.
Of Snowmen and Hot Chocolate
The apartment was too quiet, a problem we don’t often encounter in good old #22. There was no wind for once and the almost full moon was lighting up the sky behind thin clouds. Almost everyone in the apartment was asleep because it was 11 pm on a school night. There was an early spring snowstorm plopping down a couple inches of fresh snow outside.
I was sitting on the couch with two of my roommates, finishing up some last minute homework and contemplating going to bed. That’s when we heard a knock on the front door. Like the main characters of a blockbuster horror, Aubree, Autumn, and I opened the door.
And Pocket is waiting on the porch.
He was dressed up in full snow gear. I’m talking thick coat, snow pants, gloves, hat, scarf, the whole nine yards. And he asked if we wanted to build a snowman. There was a pause of hesitation because we still had homework to finish and, you know, the snow was still piling up in the middle of the night.
We looked at each other and shrugged. I think our exact words were, “Why not?”
We quietly pulled on the warmest clothes we could find and raided our fridge for anything that might come in handy when building snowmen (we only had green olives and baby carrots). Then we ran into the snow and met Pocket at the only grassy patch in the apartment complex.
We built three snowmen complete with pine needle hair and green olive eyes. In exchange for scraping the falling snow off their car, we roped a couple of strangers into taking our picture. There was a short-lived snowball fight. Short-lived only because we were laughing too hard to aim properly.
Back in the apartment, the clock on the stove nearing one in the morning, we secretly made hot chocolate (Secretly because we were still supposed to be doing no sugar). Memes were shared. Stories of peeing our pants were swapped. I laughed so much that I nearly had a new peeing my pants story. We got deep about having roommate problems.
My alarm was going off at six the next morning. I didn't finish all of my reading for my classes. The hot chocolate had definitely ruined the no sugar plan for the day. And, you know what? I didn't feel guilty.
It's Not the End of the World
Here’s the hard truth for you: One mug of hot chocolate probably won’t kill you. One night of staying up a little too late won’t wreck your health. Missing one reading for a class isn’t the end of the world, even if it feels like it is at the time.
That’s one of the most important lessons I have learned in college. So spend a few extra bucks on ice cream with your friends, even if it puts you over budget. Because this weird in between time of college and young adulthood only comes once.
Take advantage of it. Live in the moment.
Sometimes life is about building snowmen at midnight with your friends instead of doing homework.
Tell me your picking hot chocolate over no sugar story!
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