The first snow of winter always seduces me.
White glitter falling from heaven,
like Mother Nature finally gave in to her soft-girl era.
And every year, I pretend I’m ready for it —
cozy Pinterest board loaded,
iced coffee swapped for peppermint cocoa,
“main character energy” playlist set to shuffle.
But here’s the truth:
When snow falls… my mask cracks.
Suddenly, I’m not the confident queen in a trench coat,
posting snatched selfies with lashes that could fly Delta.
I’m a walking marshmallow in an overstuffed puffer,
slipping on ice like it personally betrayed me.
I tell everyone I love winter.
(SEO: mental health in winter, seasonal depression, healing journey — hi Google)
But the cold has a way of stripping me down,
peeling confidence like cheap glue-on nails.
When snow hits the ground,
I feel every emotion I tried to bury last season
rise like some messy ex texting “hey stranger.”
Every boundary I swore I’d enforce?
Melting faster than my lip gloss in July.
I start asking questions like:
“Do I even like the person I pretend to be?”
“Why does cuffing season make me crave someone toxic enough
to steam up these windows?”
“Who am I when the glitter falls off?”
Winter makes me honest.
And honesty isn’t always cute.
But damn, it’s powerful.
Sometimes the strongest thing you’ll do all year
is drop the mask
and admit you’re tired of performing.
Maybe the snow isn’t weakness —
maybe it’s a reset.
A clean slate.
A soft-white reminder that we deserve
to be seen without the filters.
We deserve to breathe.
To shiver.
To feel.
To crumble a little
so we can rebuild right.
Because here’s the secret:
Cracked doesn’t mean broken.
Cracked means expanding.
Like ice on a lake making room
for a new version of you
to rise from underneath.
So let it snow.
Let the mask crack.
Let winter expose what summer tried to hide.
I’m done pretending the cold doesn’t scare me.
But I’m learning to love the girl underneath the layers —
the one who can withstand the storm
and still look up…
mouth open…
catching snowflakes
like she believes in magic again.
