I'm not afraid of the snow!
As soon as I decided to move from Las Vegas to Wisconsin, people starting warning me about winter. I bought coats, boots, and long pants. But, ironically, Wisconsin is having a really mild winter….I have only worn the snow boots a couple times.
However, winter in Wisconsin has not been easy for me. It’s not the cold, or the snow that I’m afraid of, it’s the darkness. The short winter days, the overcasts skies (not today, yay!),and cold enough weather that you don’t want to loiter about outside with your skin exposed all contribute to a lot less sunlight exposure. When I started settling in to graduate student life (aka lots of time sitting in front of a computer) and the fall daylight started slipping away, I started to feel low in energy. I’m a morning person, and it was hard to wake up, hard to function on full power, hard to convince myself to get challenging things done. I diagnosed myself with sunlight deficit disorder.
Xylem 