Snowed-in weekends have always been my favorite times of the year. With roads a mess and many cancelled jobs and schools, life seems to stop. Living in Pennsylvania and being able to enjoy all four seasons is something I won’t take for granted. For some, the thought of snow and winter involves shoveling and being stranded and miserable. For me, being stranded and not having to worry about anything or having to go anywhere, sounds like a good time. Most people who live around the central Pennsylvania area have all been sledding once or twice in their lifetime. Some however, are not as fortunate to be able to go out sledding at the sight of the first snow flake.

This particular snowy weekend included some first timers at sledding. My brother’s wife, Renae, had never seen snow before moving to Pennsylvania in January from Jamaica. With the two feet of snow we woke up to on Saturday morning, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take her sledding for her first time. After bundling her up with snow pants and boots we headed out into the snow. She quickly got the hang of it and decided she liked the snow until she felt the sting of it on her face as she crashed on one particular ride down. Renae however, was not the only first timer to sledding on this particular weekend.

Every Sunday we take a group of elementary and middle school aged boys who live in York City to church with us. One Sunday Shequan, Shakeem, and Stephone, whom are all brothers, and their friend JaJuan came over to our house after church to go sledding. Living in York city doesn’t give them many places to go sledding at, so this was a very different experience for them. After sorting through mismatched hats and gloves, we finally started out on the long hike to the sledding hill. They soon realized that walking through two feet of snow was no walk in the park. After many complaints of their heavy boots and breaks to rest we finally reached the top of the sledding hill. Already they were tired and exhausted. The fear started to show clearly through their ‘not scared of anything’ attitudes.
After much deliberation about who was to go first as well as teasing of who was more scared, JaJuan decided to give it a go. It took them awhile to actually make it the whole way down the hill without falling out. The sledding soon turned into more of a game of tackling. After about two hours of sledding, I could really see that they were forgetting all their worries and having fun. Shequan, being the oldest brother, really showed that he cared about his brothers as he rode down with them and helped them up the hill.
Coming from broken families and bad backgrounds, JaJuan, Shequan, Shakeem, and Stephone are always grateful for what they have. They are always up for new experiences and having fun. Being snowed in all weekend with family and friends and taking the boys sledding for their first time, really made me grateful for weekends like this one and all that I’ve been given as I’ve grown up. All though some may hate snow storms and being stranded, I see them as a time to rethink, unwind, and do things that are not apart of the everyday schedule of ones life.