I once had a friend who told me that living in Seattle was the worst idea I had ever come up with. At the time I was like, “are you kidding me?” All I could think about was the trendy people there, the home of the coffee boom, the most famous farmers market in the United States, the different cultures that live there because Washington is so close to Seattle, and so on. Then my friend began to explain how she came to this conclusion, “the weather” she said. She pointed out that Seattle has nothing but rain everyday, all year long, and that it was a depressing sight and/or place to live. She then told informed me about the studies conducted on the suicide rates in Seattle, and how they were higher than the rest of the country; because of the dark, gloomy atmosphere that looms everyday. I didn’t think anything of it, I actually thought she was kinda crazy for thinking about such depressing ideas.
Now you should know that I lived in Tampa all my life and when we had this conversation I was still there. Then I moved to Orlando. What a change this is! In Tampa we had the occasional rainy days or even an occasional rainy week, but we always had some kind of sunshine pop through. In Orlando it is nothing but freakin’ rain everyday damn day, and its starting to take an affect on me.
I immediately thought back to what my friend said, and how she could possibly have a valid point. Waking up everyday to dark skies, cloudy skies, rain, cold, gloom was starting to make me depressed. Hell, I’m depressed as I write this blog because guess what? Its dark and rainy and gloomy today, what a surprise! I began to dread the night because I haven’t had my sunshine today. I realized how much I love my sunshine! Then I started thinking about those people who live in the south pole and how they get no sunshine for half a year. What?!! How do they manage to stay sane? Then on top of this I live in an apartment, like most people, with a window only on one side of the rooms. So to make it worse, we barely get sunshine here in Orlando, but when we do you only get it for half a day in your house. UGH! Not to say you cant go outside and enjoy it, which I would rather do anyways, it’s just the principle.
I find myself having to pull myself out of bed just to get going. I walk around like a zombie all day because of the weather. I dwell on having to where a sweater everyday and carry around an umbrella because it’s cold and rainy. You cant dress up and show off your fashion because you always have to wear a sweater. I definitely hate it when there are puddles all over, so I have to wear shows that are water proof or else my socks get wet. My electricity bill goes up because not only do I have to run my heater nonstop because I have to keep my windows closed, but I keep my lights on all the time just so I can see and not feel down in the dumps. Because its raining you end up not getting any exercise unless you go to the gym, but then who wants to drive to the gym in the rain and get all wet running from your car to the inside.
These are all things you do subconsciously and don’t realize how much of an affect it has on your psyche. These are everyday things that you have to change because the weather decided to ruin your life. So my advice… live somewhere sunny, like Tampa!