If you need me, too bad - I’m busy hibernating
It’s the most dreaded stretch of winter when there is no more holiday time off, and there isn’t anything to look forward to aside from the weather eventually lifting to be at least above 50 degrees in the distant future. Call me a hater, but I HATE the winter. Something in me shuts down when socializing, getting ready, or exposing myself to the cold makes my skin crawl. Some call it rotting, but I now like to think of it as ~hibernating~.
I am learning to train myself to stop guilting myself over what I should be doing in the wintertime and to go with what my body is telling me. My body is telling me to binge-watch all six seasons of Glee in one of many rotations of sweats and sweaters, all while lying horizontally in my sanctuary of a bed. Do I feel FOMO when I see friends and mutuals going on on their 6th consecutive weekend? NOPE!
This hibernation season has also made me rethink how we spend our time socially. I am realizing how little there is that people in their 20s collectively do in a social setting that doesn’t include drinking. Don’t get me wrong, one of my favorite formulas for a great night is a few glasses of red wine with good company and food. I think what I am getting at is when it feels like the only way to have a good time is if we drown our liver with alcohol and surround ourselves like sardines in a sweaty room of strangers. I have been craving to normalize activities outside of that world, but I struggle with finding the drive to find those people to do it with. But again, it is hibernation season, not hot girl summer energy. So that probably explains the lack of trying to seek out new friendships in this period of my life.
These thoughts leave me wondering… Is this an every-year thing? Is this because I don’t have the comfort of my best friends near anymore? Is it a getting older thing? Or an even more dreadful feeling, is this just a me thing?
Regardless, thinking too much about it won’t do anything. Anything could happen between now and next year. Who knows, maybe I will grow out of this annual hibernation funk one year?
