My favorite season is “not winter.” I like spring, fall and summer. I detest snow. I hate cold. I do not like wind chill factors that could freeze my face off.

A good day for me involves something outside. In the spring, this is often studying under a tree. The grass hasn’t started pollinating yet, so my allergies aren’t plaguing me. I can just barely smell the earth beneath me, still damp from the melted snow. The grass is dry, though, and the tree I like to sit under dapples the light so I can actually use my iPad for studying outdoors.

In the summer, I prefer to get sunburned. Yes, I know how bad for me that is. I wear sunscreen, I promise! But as a former swimmer and a kid who spent a good portion of her childhood in dusty, scorching-hot southwest Kansas, the ache that comes with the burn reminds me of my childhood. It reminds me of going to the lake with my grandparents in Minnesota. It reminds me of days where there was so much going on and so much to do that applying sunscreen was quickly put to the back of my mind. I wore my sunburns with a lofty pride; I went outside and did something.

In the fall, I love the changing of the leaves. I love the smell of the leaves on the ground and the crunch the make when I “accidentally” step on one. Okay, if I’m being honest, I’m jumping into piles of leaves like I’m a toddler.

Fall is the celebration of spring and summer. We drink the cider from the apples that grew the past two seasons. We pull out our sweaters but not our winter coats. Pumpkin Spice Lattes return to Starbucks!

Fall is also harvest season; in my family that means baling. This is the time of year when we cut all the grass, bale ‘em up into hay bales with twine and throw ‘em around — either onto a flatbed for transportation or into a barn for storage.

Hay and straw, if you don’t know, are not soft like folktales will have you believe. Throwing bales will leave you with scratches up and down your forearms that are so numerous it looks as if you stuck your arm in a beehive and waved hello. The more scratches, the more bales you tossed and the harder you therefore worked. These scratches are badges of honor, so much so that my father called me last night on Skype to show off his latest — and to rub in the fact that I missed baling season and have no scratches this year.

But winter is coming. Winter, that evil beast that blows wind in our faces and trips us with hidden icy patches, will be here soon. Today is just a reminder of that for me.

Sure, I know a lot of you love winter. There’s hot cocoa by the fire, snowball fights in the quad and hockey season starting up. Some of you are snowboarders. Some of you are skiers. Maybe you focus on the memories — and anticipation of — the many holidays that occur in winter. Maybe you just look forward to the presents that come with many of those religious holidays.

This article, though, is directed at those who are like me: those who hate, loathe and utterly despise the evil that is winter. I’m here to remind you that we’ve only got a few nice days left before our boogers turn to icicles and our eyelids freeze open. Enjoy these warm days while you can, friends. Winter is coming.

Kjerstine Trooien is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].