Couch Sled

Do you ever stop in the middle of a memory?

You pause in the moment to soak everything in, hoping it might all stay forever. Tonight was one of those nights for me.

At school we have a huge hill called Slayter, that is famous for a lot of things, but sledding in the winter is one of its most iconic uses. A lot of my friends went sledding down the hill the night before, but I was tucked into bed early and didn’t think I’d go. Even though I lived right next to Slayter last year when it snowed, I never made it up to sled. But tonight, my friends coaxed me outside in the crisp cold to take a ride down an old couch with skis attached to the bottom. Yes, you read that right. I bundled myself up with what little snow gear I had, and we went for it. I can confirm that a couch sled is pretty sweet, and after several good runs the poor thing broke a part.

In the midst of it all, I stood quiet at the bottom of the hill, a dark sky above me and snow all around me, admiring the yells and laughs as college students tried anything and everything you could imagine to be a sled. Laundry baskets, shopping carts, trash bags, cardboard, and a couch! It was good to take a pause from college life for a minute and remind myself that we’re all still just kids. We might be learning about supply and demand charts and linear algebra with finals two weeks away, but something about snow, a good hill, and a makeshift sled makes sense. It all seemed like a little piece of magic.

Sledding down the hill brought smiles, rosy cheeks, and faces full of snow, but it was all just good medicine. After the couch couldn’t hold up any longer, we hauled her back and when my friend and I were dropped off at our house, we of course detoured and made some snow angels in the untouched snow of our parking lot. Then we attacked our friends with snowballs, and everyone started messing around, dodging flying snow and taking chilly hits in the face. I laughed quite a healthy amount. And there in the parking lot, cold and smiley I thought to myself, couldn’t this joy just sit for a little longer? I wanted it to stay there. I wanted the moment to soak in and stay forever. That’s what I believe is comical about life. Some of the things we live through we wish we could skip right over and as for other moments, we wish they would last forever. I think life is worth living for the moments you want to freeze in time.

So, if it snows near you, find a good ole hill and go sledding. Take your friends and freeze yourselves until you’re laughing and overflowing with happiness. Be careful of course, don’t do something stupid like maybe take a couch down a hill and hurt yourself on accident, but go live life and let the good moments soak in so they’ll last forever.

Best,

Meg