A Little Something About Being from Texas

I love being from and living in Texas. I could spend hours educating you on my passion for my state, but I'm going to save you quite a bit of time and just highly recommend that you check out the Texas Humor Twitter page. Just trust me on that one. If nothing else, my pride will make more sense, but the goal of course is that you will come to share it.

Upon browsing that page, it won’t take you long to figure out how much Texans hate the cold weather. We flat-out despise it. I grew up in Houston, and it snowed a grand total of two times in my eighteen years there. The remnants are still in my mom’s freezer. It was pretty, sure. But it never stuck. It was always too warm. When I was 10, I wanted the snow to stay forever. It was fun to play in, and its sheer presence guaranteed no school. That’s the most important part of this. Snow never stuck, and I was never properly taught how to function in snow. And that had never been an issue. That is, until I came to college.

I go to school in Dallas, which has a climate that is similar to Houston. I gets really hot in the summer, but there’s less humidity. The major difference is in the winter months. I got one snow day all of high school. One. That was because all the roads were supposed to ice overnight. I’ve lived in Dallas for about a year and a half now and I’ve seen more ice and snow in that year and a half than I did in all my years in Houston. It’s pretty and all when it snows, but ice is terrible. I slide everywhere. I’m like a fish out of water. None of my shoes have enough traction to keep me from wiping out on sidewalks. Those are typically very public sidewalks, might I add. I fell getting out of the car at a Raising Cane’s. I fell crossing the street while changing classes on campus. I’m hopeless. Genuinely hopeless.

I have accepted that I will never be comfortable with snow, and that is 100% okay with me. I don’t want to drive in it. I don’t want to walk in it. My philosophy is basically that if snow’s out, I’m not. It’s nice to look at, but past that, I can’t think of another use for it.

So here’s my point with all of this: I’m from Texas, where snow is as hard to find as “pop.” To any of you who know what to do with snow, congratulations. It’s a useful skill. I don’t know what to do, and it’s going to take a lot of effort to convince me to learn. But if you move somewhere like Texas, or anywhere in the deep South, respect our lack of knowledge. We try. We really do. I tried to make it to class without causing any bodily harm to myself. I just can’t. Don’t mock us. All the same courtesy rules that apply in Texas still apply in the snow. You stop to help stalled cars, and you check in on your neighbors, and you extend a helping hand to anyone you happen to see eat it on the sidewalk on their way to class. Or work. Or up their driveway, or wherever the case may be. Because snow isn’t part of culture, but respect is.