Seasons of Darkness

a reflection, a prompt, and a date to save

I moved to Alaska over Christmas break during 5th grade. Having bounced around the deep south for most of my life up to that point, the only snow I had ever seen was the occasional, once in a blue moon flurry that shut down everything within a 50 mile radius. You can imagine my surprise when I stepped out of the Anchorage airport to find snow up to my waist.

More than the snow, though, what I remember about moving to Alaska in December was the darkness.

For me, it all was novel and exciting — the way the darkness cushioned the world. When school started at 9:15am, it still looked like midnight. By mid-afternoon, the sun was setting again.

Anchorage, Alaska at 2:00pm in February 2020

My mother, on the other hand, hated the darkness. We laugh about it now, but at the time it wasn’t unusual to find her perched on the edge of the sofa, head stuck under the lampshade of our brightest lamp. If my siblings and I asked her what she was doing, she’d declare, “I just need some light!”